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Individual  Instruction 


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THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 

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LATA  OF   TWO   XYA'Rii'    I.XPE1-IENCE   IN 
OPKHATIQN   OF   A   SYSTEI.i  OF 
INDIVIDUAL    INHTRUGTION 


BY 


I  ^ 


BURK.    FREDERICK 


^ 


Southern  Branch 
of  the 

University  of  California 

Los  Angeles 

\  «3\ 


s:> 


s\  \^'^j: 


SAN     FRANCISCO     STATE     NORMAL     SCHOOL 


MONOGRAPH    C 


IN  RE 

EVERYCHILD,  a  minor, 

vs. 
LOCKSTEP  SCHOOLING 


A  Suit  in  Equity 


Data  of  Two  Years'  Experience  in  Operation 
of  a  System  of 

INDIVIDUAL  INSTRUCTION 

SHOWING 

Accelerated  Rates  of  Pupils'  Progress 

Elimination  of  Wastes  of  School  Time 
Actual  Saving  in  Cost  of  Schooling 

Adaptability  to  Various  Schools 


THBRB  ARE  NO  MISFIT  CHILDREN. 
There  are  misfit  schools,  misHt  texts  and  studies,  misfit 
dogmas  and  traditions  of  pedants  and  pedantry.  There  are 
misfit  homes,  misfit  occupations  and  diversions.  In  fact,  there 
are  all  kinds  and  conditions  of  misfit  clothing  for  children 
but — In  the  nature  of  things  there  can  be  NO  MISFIT 
CHILDREN. 


California 

State  Pbintinq  Office 

1915 


19474 


MONOGRAPH  C 

IN  RE 

EVERYCHILD,  A  MINOR, 

vs.  [      A    Suit    in    Equity 

LOCKSTEP  SCHOOLING 


The  business  of  schools  is  to  shape  themsekrs  to  the  pupils. 
Bach  child  is  a  special  creation,  and,  strictly  speaking,  education 
cannot  be  the  same  for  any  two  pupils.  That  it  is  the  business 
of  schools  to  saxc;  to  plane  and  to  compress  pupils  into  fixed 
school  molds,  is  the  smug  impertinence  of  an  ancient,  persistent, 
and  preposterous  pedantry.  Until  this  pedantry  is  uprooted, 
trunk  and  branch,  schools  must  fail  to  fulfill  their  purpose. 


Data  of  Results,  Methods  and  Costs 
of  Operating  Schools  by 

INDIVIDUAL   INSTRUCTION 


4  o  9  [-  2  ^^^'^' 


COMPILED   BY 

FREDERIC  BURK 

President  San  Francisco  State  Normal 


19474 


SAN  FRANCISCO  STATE  NORMAL  SCHOOL. 


Hiram  W.  Johnson, 

Governor. 
Judge  George  E.  Crotiiers. 
James  B.  Davidson. 


Board  of  Trustees. 

Edward   Hyatt, 

Superintendent  of  Public  Instruction. 
Philip  M.  Fisher, 
Joseph  S.  Thompson. 
Frank  S.  Brittain. 


Primary  Reading. 

Corinne  H.  Johnstone. 
Mabel  Arleigh. 


Faculty. 

Oral  Reading  and  Expression. 
Lucj'  Alsnuson  Smith. 
Douglas  Whitehead. 


General  Reading  and  Literature. 
Mabel  Ashley. 


History  and  Civics. 
P.  F.  Valentine. 


Arithmetic. 

Mary  A.  Ward. 
Margaret  E.  Brennfleck. 
Irene  Norris. 
Willard  Beatty. 
Louise  lyes. 


Composition,  Language,  Etc. 
Effie  B.  McFadden. 
Ethel  G.  Smith. 
A.  S.  Boulware. 
Pha?be  Cole. 
Florine  Falk. 


Science. 

Mabel  Ashley. 

Carleton  W.  Washburne. 


Geographi/. 

F.  W.  Hoflfman. 
Eugenia  Schmidt. 


Music. 

Estelle  Cai-penter. 
Mary  W.  McCauley. 
Eva  A.  Levy. 


Kindergarten. 

Anna  Stovall. 
Gail  Harrison. 
Miriam  Barbour. 


H&nschold  Arts. 
Alice  Spelman. 


Physical  Edvcation. 

Harriet  Randall  Flandei's. 


Drawing. 

Freda  Grunig 
Hilda  Smith. 


Executive  Management. 
Eva  A.  Levy. 
Florence   Vance. 
Archibald  B.  Anderson. 
Frederic  Burk. 


THE  CONCLUSIONS  OF  THIS  MONOGRAPH 


An  individual  system  of  school  instruction  has  been  in  operation  in 
the  elementary  department  (first  to  eighth  grades)  of  the  San  Francisco 
State  Normal  School  for  the  past  two  years.  Records  of  progress  of  each 
pupil  have  been  kept  and  compiled.  From  the  compilation  of  this  data 
of  experience,  this  monograph  will  show  the  following  conclusions : 

I.  THE  RATE  OF  PROGRESS.  That  the  slowest  pupils,  in  normal 
health  of  body  and  mind,  will  complete  the  usual  eight  grades  of  the  ele- 
mentary school  in  not  more  than  seven  years ;  that  the  fastest  will  finish  in 
not  more  than  five  years ;  that  between  these  extremes,  the  rates  are  very 
evenly  distributed;  that,  in  consequence,  pupils  who  enter  school  at  6  years 
of  age  will  complete  the  eight  grades  between  the  ages  of  10  and  13  years. 

II.  ALL  PUPILS  WILL  FINISH  THE  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL- 
ING. The  appalling  fact  that  60  per  cent  or  more  of  the  youth  of  the 
country  enter  upon  world  life  without  the  equipment  at  least  of  an  ele- 
mentary schooling  will  be  dissipated  by  the  simple  solution  that  prac- 
tically all  pupils  will  complete  the  course  before  they  reach  the  ages  at 
which  they  at  present  seek  to  leave  the  schools. 

III.  GREATER  THOROUGHNESS.  That  the  individual  system 
must  upon  principle,  and  does  in  fact,  give  a  thoroughness  and  efficiency 
to  every  pupil  quite  beyond  any  possibility  of  the  lockstep  schooling. 

IV.  INDIVIDUAL  INSTRUCTION  COSTS  LESS  THAN  CLASS 
INSTRUCTION.  The  current  hasty  conclusion  to  the  contrary  is  due  to 
the  fact  that  the  largest  item  in  the  cost  of  schooling  by  the  class  sys- 
tem— unnecessary  waste  amounting  to  considerably  more  than  50  per 
cent — is  entirely  overlooked.  Among  the  huge  wastes  inherent  in  the 
lockstep  of  the  class  system  are  those  due  (1)  to  repetition  of  grades, 
(2)  to  inability  to  use  the  gains  of  accelerated  rates  of  progress,  (3)  to  the 
reg-ulations  that  all  pupils  must  learn  what  only  a  few  have  the  need  of, 
or  the  ability  to  learn,  and  (4)  to  certain  frictional  losses  in  the  teaching 
of  large  classes.  Individual  instruction  cuts  out  these  wastes  by  elimi- 
nating their  causes. 

V.  THE  NUMBER  OF  PUPILS  PER  TEACHER.  It  has  also  been 
a  hasty  conclusion  that  to  operate  an  individual  system  would  require 
many  more  teachers  than  the  lockstep  method.  This  conclusion  over- 
looks the  fact  that  if  pupils  make  faster  progress  through  the  grades,  the 
number  of  pupils  in  any  one  class  will  be  reduced  proportionally  to  the 
increase  in  rapidity  of  progress.  Our  data  goes  to  show  the  size  of 
classes  of  40  to  50  pupils  will  be  automatically  reduced  to  25  to  30  under 
individual  instruction  which  eliminates  the  repeaters,  introduces  accelera- 
tion, and  economizes  time  in  other  ways. 

(3) 


THE  SCOPE  OF  THIS  MONOGRAPH. 

In  the  fall  of  1913  Monograph  A,  under  the  title  of  ' '  Lockstep  School- 
ing and  a  Remedy,"  was  issued.  This  monograph  presented  an  indict- 
ment of  the  class  system  of  instruction  by  which  all  pupils  in  our  schools, 
indiscriminately,  and  without  regard  to  differences  of  mentality,  tempera- 
ment, inborn  -talents,  or  tastes,  health,  absences,  etc.,  are  marshaled 
through  the  grades  by  platoons  in  tight  lockstep.  To  this  condition,  as  a 
chief  cause,  was  traced  the  retardation  by  which  betAveen  30  and  50  per 
cent  of  all  pupils  now  in  the  schools  of  the  United  States  have  lost  one, 
two,  three  and  more  years.  To  this  condition  was  also  traced  the  chief 
cause  of  the  fact  that  over  60  per  cent  of  all  pupils  in  the  United  States 
leave  school  before  they  have  completed  the  elementary  grades,  and  are 
ushered  into  the  struggle  of  life  without  the  rudiments  of  education ;  and 
finally  to  this  condition  were  traced  the  roots  of  the  apathy,  the  indiffer- 
ence, and  the  inefficiency  in  our  schools,  and  the  inability  to  accomplish 
what  they  undertake  to  accomplish. 

These  facts  leave  no  room  for  cavil  or  palliation.  There  is  obviously 
something  radically  faulty  in  some  large  fundamental  underpinning  of 
the  school  system.  The  class  system,  by  the  requirement  that  all  pupils 
in  a  given  class  shall  maintain  the  same  rate  of  progress,  makes  the 
impossible  assumptions  that  all  pupils  possess  the  same  mental  powers  in 
exactly  the  same  degree ;  that  no  individuals  can  ever  be  absent ;  that  all 
shall  maintain,  simultaneously,  the  same  degree  of  forced  attention 
throughout  each  school  lesson.  Such  assumptions  are  obviously  impos- 
sible, and  the  existing  system  thereby  creates,  by  its  own  hand,  the  army 
of  laggards.  There  is  no  remedy  for  this  laggardism,  in  the  present 
system,  except  for  the  victims  to  repeat  grades — and  this  is  not  a  remedy. 
The  statistics  testify  to  the  results. 

Monograph  A  pointed  out  that  the  only  remedy  must  be  a  new  system 
of  schooling  which  should  be  made  to  fit  these  conditions  of  manifest 
differences  in  pupils,  giving  to  each  full  opportunity  to  gain  an  education 
at  his  own  rate,  and  according  to  situations  individual  to  him.  The 
beginnings  of  such  a  system,  then  just  inaugurated  in  the  elementary 
department,  were  outlined.  The  present  monograph  continues  the  report 
of  this  work,  giving  data,  compilations  and  consequences  of  this  new 
sj^stem., 

Our  Elementary  Department  consists  of  the  eight  grades  of  primary 
and  grammar  school  work  and  has  been  attended  by  500  to  600  children, 
ranging  from  6  to  15  ,or  16  years  of  age.  Distinctly  subnormal  pupils 
are  not  admitted  and  in  all  statements  it  must  be  understood  their 
absence  is  assumed.  The  pupils  are  taught,  not  by  paid  teachers  with 
the  assistance  of  students  as  is  usual-  in  Normal  Schools,  but  directly 
by  the  students  themselves  under  direction  of  faculty  supervisors.     While 

(4) 


our  records  of  the  progress  of  any  iiidividiuil  pupil  will  not  extend 
over  two  years,  yet  the  whole  field  of  the  eight-year  course  has  been 
covered  and  our  compilations  are  upon  this  basis.  In  the  consideration 
of  the  data  Ave  have  to  ollfer,  we  wish  a  distinctly  clear  understanding  of 
just  what  our  data  shows,  just  what  we  have  accomplished  and  an  equally 
distinct  understanding  of  Avhat  we  have  not  accomplished  or  have  not 
attempted  to  accomplish. 

We  have  worked  out  into  actual  practice,  under  conditions  of  an  ele- 
mentarj'-  school,  used  primarily  and  essentially  for  the  purpose  of  training 
teachers,  a  system  of  individual  instruction.  This  principle  of  individual 
instruction  is  the  same  in  this  school  as  it  would  be  in  any  other  school — 
rural,  city,  or  special;  and  it  can  be  used  in  any  school;  but  the  form  of 
administration  is  entirely  different  necessarily.  Our  form  of  administra- 
tion, dominated  and  complicated  by  the  wholly  irrelevant  problem  of  train- 
ing inexperienced  young  teachers,  offers  little,  even  suggestively,  for  appli- 
cation to  city  school  systems.  "With  slight  modifications,  our  plans  may. 
however,  be  used  in  rural  schools,  in  "special"  classes  of  city  schools,  and 
in  most  night  schools. 

AVhat  we  have  done  during  the  past  two  years  has  been  to  determine 
the  actual  variation  in  the  rates  of  progress  of  pupils  when  each  pupil  is 
permitted  to  learn  at  his  own  rate ;  to  compile  exercise  books  in  the  several 
school  subjects ;  to  make  individual  instruction  in  general  practicable ;  and 
to  invent  and  put  into  successful  operation  an  administrative  system  under 
the  special  conditions  of  Normal  Training  Schools. 

The  devising  of  an  administrative  plan  for  city  schools  can  only  be 
worked  out  in  a  city  school.  We  show  that  it  can  be  accomplished,  finan- 
cially, with  saving  to  the  school  treasury.  As  for  the  difficulties,  it  may  at 
least  be  said  that  the  project  is  ea.sy,  compared  with  that  of  adapting  the 
individual  principle  to  a  Normal  Training  School,  complicated  by  the  dis- 
tracting conditions  of  wholly  inexperienced  teachers,  changing  classes  three 
times  per  day,  and  changing  subjects  three  times  per  year.  With  trained 
and  permanent  teachers,  the  problem  of  inventing  an  administrative  system 
for  individual  instruction  is  new,  but  it  certainly  can  not  be  difficult. 

We  wish  to  make  this  fact  quite  clear,  for  so  many  visit  us  expecting  to 
find  in  our  training  school,  not  only  the  principle  of  individual  instruction, 
but  also  a  system  of  administration  exactly  fitted  and  shaped  to  their  own 
various  and  particular  school  conditions. 


THE  MACHINERY  OF  INDIVIDUAL  SCHOOLING. 

The  adaptation  of  texts  to  make  the  length  of  lesson  elastii-ally  fit  differ- 
ent pupils,  promotion  in  each  subject  separately',  the  establishment  of  grade 
standards  upon  the  basis  of  the  slowest  diligent  pupil's  rate  of  progress, 
and  the  adaptation  of  a  report  card  to  show  the  individual  facts  truthfully, 
constitute  the  chief  mechanical  devices  for  the  operation  of  an  individual 
system. 

•2—19474  (u) 


The  Elastic  Lesson.  Jf  it  is  impossible  to  teach  a  class  of  fifty  pupils 
en  massf.  it  is  clearly  as  impossible  to  make  texts  by  which  pupils  may  be 
expected  to  learn  en  masse.  lu  fact,  the  difficulties  are  multiplied.  Our 
school  texts,  at  best,  are  constructed,  not  as  teaching-  books,  but  as  condensed 
essences  of  knowledge  in  form  salable  to  school  boards.  The  real  task  of 
adaptin^r  them  as  teaching  tools  has  been  left  to  the  personal  ingenuity  of 
teachers.  As  well  might  a  farmer  be  supplied  with  cold  pig  iron  in  the 
expectation  that  he  could  adapt  from  it  his  plow,  his  ax  and  his  shovel! 
As  a  consequence,  the  best  results  under  class  teaching  have  as  a  rule  been 
obtained  by  the  least  use  of  the  texts,  comlnned  with  the  greatest  use  of 
teachers  of  very  exceptional  ingenuity.  But  the  frequency  of  teacher 
geniuses  for  this  ta.sk  necessarily  is  so  occasional,  that  the  results  are  what 
they  are.  The  necessity  of  a  system  which  shall  not  depend  chiefly  upon 
such  occasional  accidents  of  teaching  genius  is  obvious.  The  form  of  texts 
is  particularly  handicapping  to  our  plan  of  individual  instruction. 

It  is  to  this  task  of  inventing  and  compiling  exercise  books  in  adaptation 
of  texts  that  the  members  of  the  faculty  have  been  devoting  their  extra 
energies  for  two  years.  We  have  now  completed  exercise  bool<s  in  arith- 
metic, language,  grammar,  history  and  geography,  which  have  been  printed. 
We  are  also  using,  in  mimeograph  or  manuscript  form,  handbooks  in  read- 
ing, writing,  music,  drawing  and  literature,  which  will  probably  be  printed 
later. 

The  lessons  to  teach  new  principles  or  processes  are  constructed  upon  an 
elastic  plan.  There  are  duplicate  exercises  and  generally  more  of  them 
than  most  pupils  will  need  to  work.  If  a  pupil  works  accurately  certain  of 
these  exercises  he  skips  the  duplicates  and  passes  on  to  the  next  lesson.  A 
tremendous  premium  is  thereby  oiiPered  for  accuracy.  The  pupils  of  slower 
grasp  do  as  many  of  the  duplicates,  under  an  automatic  system,  as  may  be 
necessary  to  secure  accuracy  in  efficient  degree.  By  this  device  of  an  elastic 
length  of  lessons  the  text  is  made  to  fit  the  individual  needs  of  the  different 
pupils  and  no  iiupil  i)roceeds  until  he  has  laid  a  safe  foundation.  On  the 
other  hand,  pupils  do  no  more  than  is  necessary  for  the  purpose. 

Automatic  Reviews.  Subsequent  reviews,  eml)()died  in  the  regular 
lessons,  take  care  of  the  retention  of  what  is  once  learned  and  the  system  of 
elasticity  is  made  to  apply  also  to  these  reviews  in  a  definite,  automatic  way. 
Instead  of  testing  pupils'  thoroughness  of  comprehension  at  intervals  of  a 
year  or  six  months,  these  automatic  tests  are  inserted  at  short  intervals,  and 
if  a  pupil  needs  more  drill,  it  is  given  immediately,  l)efore  he  meets  greater 
difficulties.  It  is  far  more  economical  in  time  to  see  that  each  brick  of  the 
foundation  is  firm  rather  than  to  wait  until  the  whole  foundation  is  laid 
with  the  possibility  of  being  obliged  to  commence  all  over  again.  These 
review  tests  generally  are  worked  into  the  body  of  the  lessons  so  that  the 
pupil  does  not  recognize  them  as  such.  The  tests  are  followed  by  corrective 
exercises;  those  pupils  who  do  the  test  without  error  skip  the  corrective 
exercises  while  only  those  who  need  corrective  work  are  given  it. 

(6) 


Promotion  by  Subjects.  Tiider  the  class  system,  not  only  must 
pupils  keep  in  loekstei)  one  with  another,  hut  also  each  pupil  must  mak.' 
even  progress  in  the  six  to  ten  or  more  sul)jects  he  may  he  studying-  at  one 
time.  If  he  keeps  well  the  step  in  reading,  geography,  history,  drawing, 
etc.,  and  yet  falls  behind  in  one  sub.jeet— let  us  say  arithmetic— then  at  the 
end  of  the  grade  he  nuist  retrace  the  year's  work  not  only  in  tlie  .sul)jeet  in 
which  he  failetl.  hut  also  in  six,  seven,  eight  or  ninr  suhjcrts  in  which  he 
succeeded.  It  looks  inhuman— it  is  inhuman.  But  there  is  and  can  be  no 
help  for  it  luider  the  class  system  of  administration.  There  is  no  way  by 
which  a  pupil  can  go  forward  in  certain  subjects  and  retrace  work  in 
another.  Such  a  modification  would  lead  inevitably  to  individual  instruc- 
tion. 

By  adopting  the  plan  of  indivichial  instruction  the  ilifhcidty  disappears. 
Since  the  i)upil  is  working  by  himself,  independent  of  others,  it  is  entirely 
practicable  to  tnke  time  from  subjects  in  which  he  makes  rapid  progress,  in 
order  to  repair  shortcomings  in  subjects  with  which  he  has  difficulty.  Con- 
sequently, our  first  step  is  to  separate  the  subjects  one  from  the  other,  to 
establi.sh  grade  standards  for  each  subject  and  to  issue  a  promotion  certifi- 
cate for  each  subject  whenever  the  pupil  completes  the  grade's  work  in  this 
subject.  If  the  i)upil  tends  to  run  ahead  in  certain  subjects  and  behind  in 
others,  it  is  an  easy  matter  to  adjust  the  daily  time  allotments  for  each  pupil 
in  a  way  to  secure  evenness  of  ])rogress  so  far  as  this  may  be  necessary. 

Grading.  What  constitutes  a  grade's  work  is  necessarily  a  matter  of 
guesswork  under  the  class  system.  It  is  merely  an  arbitrary  rating  fixed 
by  a  Board  of  Education,  usually  upon  the  basis  of  texts.  It  is  supposed, 
in  a  rough  way,  to  be  what  the  "average"  pupil  should  cover.'  It  is  fixed 
under  the  frank  realization  that  a  considerable  number  can  not  cover  it  and 
will  become  decided  "misfits";  that  many  others  will  be  obliged  to  mark 
time.  Under  the  class  system  these  two  lo.sses  are  necessary.  louder  the 
individual  system  the  exact  rate  of  progress  for  each  luipil  in  completion  of 
a  unit  of  progress  can  be  found.  The  rate  of  the  slowest  is  taken  as  the 
standard  for  the  grade.  The  more  rapid  pupils  will  finish  sooner  and  pass 
into  the  next  half  grade,  or.  if  we  deem  it  wise,  we  may  shorten  the  daily 
allotment  of  time  given  to  arithmetic  by  these  pupils,  giving  the  surplus  to 
subjects  in  which  they  may  need  extra  time.  At  any  rate,  under  this 
arrangement,  all  pupils,  fast,  slow,  or  medium,  in  a  given  subject,  are 
adjusted  satisfactorily. 

If  the  number  of  hours  re(iuired  by  the  slowest  pupil  with  reasonable 
diligence  should  prove  more  than  allowed  by  our  schedule,  we  have  four 
alternative  means  of  correction:  (1)  to  increase  the  allowance  by  taking 
time  from  other  subjects;  (2)  to  shorten  the  amount  of  ground  to  be  covered 
in  the  grade;  (3)  to  inspect  the  coui'se  to  discover  whether  or  not  some  dead 
limbs  of  useless  knowledge  could  not  be  cut  out;  or  (4)  to  inspect  the  time- 
consuming  difficulties  and  their  causes  with  a  view  of  inventing  means  for 
faster  progress.     If  we  keep   proper   records  of  each   pupil's   work  and 


(7) 


progress,  these  various  items  will  show  themselves  in  a  very  definite  way 
and  we  are  in  a  position  to  find  suitable  remedies. 

If  the  alternatives  mentioned  enable  us  to  correct  emergency  diseases, 
they  also  suggest  the  more  important  means  of  constant  improvement  of  our 
system.  With  records  of  progress  before  us  we  may  be  constantly  alert  to 
make  improvements  in  methods,  or  to  cut  out  dead  wood  in  the  subject- 
matter  with  a  view  to  greater  efficiency  of  all  pupils  or  of  certain  pupils. 
If  we  can,  by  any  legitimate  means,  shorten  the  time  of  the  slowest  pupils 
we  shorten  the  grade  standard. 

These  records  stand  as  a  constant  indicator  of  our  teaching  efficiency 
and  as  a  vigorous,  stimulating  challenge  to  improve  upon  it.  We  are  no 
longer  working  in  the  dark,  but  in  the  clear  light  of  day  with  a  definite 
measure  of  the  effectiveness  of  every  stroke.  The  cost  in  time  and  energy 
of  teaching  this  or  that  supposedly  valuable  item  of  education,  and  the 
practicability  of  this  or  that  process  of  instruction  is  checked  and  laid  before 
us  by  the  merciless  test  of  visible  results.  As  a  result,  an  intelligent  and 
earnest  teacher  is  constantly  upon  her  mettle  to  improve  conditions — because 
they  can  be  improved.  ^Moreover,  the  work  is  exhilarating  mentally, 
morallj'  and  phj'sically. 

Report  Cards.  There  has  ahvays  been  trouble  in  making  truthful 
report  cards.  If  a  pupil  is  very  diligent  and  yet  can  not  keep  up  with  the 
class,  the  teacher  has  never  known  what  to  do  about  it.  The  fact  that  the 
pupil  is  lagging  behind  the  arbitrary  standard  set  for  class  promotion  indi- 
cates that  he  is  doing  poor  work.  To  be  honest  the  teacher  should  mark 
accordingly  and  thus  inform  the  parent.  But  to  mark  thus  a  diligent  pupil 
who  is  earnestly  doing  the  best  he  and  his  ancestry  permit  him  to  do,  takes 
a  heart  harder  than  most  teachers  possess.  Besides,  to  do  so,  hopelessly 
discourages  him  who  needs  all  the  encouragement  he  can  get. 

The  situation  is  clearly  impossible  of  any  sensible  or  serviceable  solution. 
At  the  end  of  the  term  there  is  more  trouble.  If  the  teacher  has  marked 
the  pupil  "poor"  throughout,  then  the  failure  to  be  promoted  has  proven 
to  him  the  hopelessness  and  folly  of  effort.  If  she  has  marked  him  "fair" 
or  "satisfactory,"  and  nevertheless  can  not  promote  him,  then  injustice  is 
added  to  injury.  If  she  promotes  him  into  the  next  grade  she  may  ruin 
him  for  life.  The  parent  thereupon  confronts  the  teacher  with  the  evidence 
of  her  own  report,  and  there  is  an  inexplicable  situation. 

Under  the  individual  plan  this  dilemma  does  not  occur.  The  grade 
standard  is  the  rate  of  the  slowest  pupil  exercising  reasonable  diligence.  A 
pupil,  poor  in  diligence,  may  fall  below  the  grade  standard  of  progress 
because  of  his  lack  of  diligence,  but  if  a  pupil  of  satisfactory  diligence 
should  fall  below  the  standard  set,  it  would  be  evidence  that  the  grade 
standard,  not  the  pupil,  must  be  corrected.  By  this  system  a  truthful 
report,  serviceable  to  pupil  and  parent,  is  possible. 

Our  report  cards  also  have,  for  most  subjects,  two  other  markings — 
"neatness  of  written  work"  and  "self-reliance."     In  order  to  estal)lish  the 


(8) 


habit  of  neat,  legible  writing,  we  insist  that  all  written  work,  in  <  ru-ij  snh- 
jcct,  sliall  be  earefully  and  neatly  done.  "Self-reliance"  indicates  that  the 
pupil  does  his  work  l)y  his  own  initiative — not  because  he  is  forced,  not 
because  he  is  urged  or  cajoled,  or  artificially  stimulated — but  that  he  applies 
himself  to  his  own  work  with  a  businesslike  attention  to  his  own  interest. 
A  pupil  who  gives  up  at  slight  difficulties,  calls  for  teacher's  aid  unneces- 
sarily, or  is  subject  to  "humors"  is  not  self-reliant.  A  pupil  may  be 
"excellent,"  "satisfactory"  or  "poor"  in  self-reliance,  but  this  marking  is 
quite  independent  of  the  mark  for  "diligence"  or  "progress."  A  pupil 
may  be  excellent  in  diligence,  or  even  in  progress,  because  the  teacher  is 
continually  at  his  elbow,  forcing,  admonishing  or  entreating,  but  his  mark 
would  be  "poor"  in  self-reliance. 

To  cover  the  preceding  situation — "diligence"  and  "progress" — a  pupil 
is  marked  "excellent,"  "satisfactory"  or  "poor"  in  each.  If  he  is  very 
diligent  but  makes  poor  progress  the  facts  are  duly  recorded.  Nothing  is 
more  important  in  any  situation  than  to  have  the  facts  and  causes  set  forth, 
to  all  concerned,  in  a  clear  and  truthful  wav. 


r-n 


TYPICAL  RECORD  SHEETS. 

In  order  to  present  in  concrete  form  the  data  of  individual  rates  of 
progress,  two  tables  of  records  are  herewith  submitted.  The  tirst  comprises 
the  records  of  100  pupils  in  primary  reading  and  the  second  records  of  100 
pupils  in  grammar  grade  arithmetic.  They  are  not  selected  records,  but 
taken  in  alphabetical  order  just  as  they  come,  from  our  card  indexes. 

The  entries  are  not  completely  filled,  due  to  two  conditions :  (1)  the  record 
is  complete  as  far  as  the  pupil  has  yet  made  progress  (note  the  right  hand 
date)  ;  (2)  the  pupil  did  not  enter  the  school  or  was  not  put  upon  the  indi- 
vidual system  until  the  date  indicated  at  the  left. 

The  Records  in  Reading.  In  the  teaching  of  reading,  we  have  three 
courses,  which  for  purposes  of  promotion  are  distinct  and  separate: 
(1)  al)ility  to  get  the  meaning;  (2)  phonics;  (8)  oral  expression.  The 
records  given  are  those  of  the  first — ability  to  get  the  meaning.  ]\Iost  of  the 
slow  records  are  accounted  for  l)y  the  fact  that  we  made  progress  in  phonics 
a  condition  of  promotion  in  al)ility  to  obtain  the  meaning.  But  for  the  past 
six  months,  a  pupil  has  been  promoted  in  ability  to  get  meaning  regardless 
of  his  progress  in  phonics.  The  basis  of  promotion  is  as  follows :  for  each 
half  grade  a  number  of  books,  or  selected  parts  of  books,  are  assigned  as  the 
reading  material  of  this  half  grade.  One  of  these  books  is  made  the 
standard  or  test  for  promotion.  The  others  are  used  as  drill  material  pre- 
paratory for  this  te.st.  For  example,  there  are  assigned  as  possible  prepara- 
tory material  for  the  low  third  grade  reading  some  twenty-five  books  ranging 
in  type  from  ^sop's  Fables,  Vol.  II,  Grimm's  Fairy  Stories,  Adventures  of 
a  Brownie,  Adventures  of  Pinochio,  Fox's  Indian  Primer,  Eskimo  Stories, 
to  Stories  of  the  United  States  for  Youngest  Readers,  and  Stories  of  Great 
Americans  for  Little  Americans.  The  final  test  of  acquired  ability  is  power 
to  read  at  sight  fluently  and  undenstandingly,  typical  selections  of  the  last 
half  of  the  State  Third  Reader  (Stepping  Stones  to  Literature.  Third 
Book). 

The  test  standard  of  each  half  grade  is  placed  at  the  head  of  each  column 
in  the  table.  It  does  not  mean  that  every  pupil  must  read  all  the  prepara- 
tory books,  nor  even,  theoretically,  that  he  should  rc^ad  any  of  them.  The 
principle  is  that  he  should  read  as  many  of  them  as  will  enable  him  to  read 
the  test  book  fluently  and  with  understanding.  This  requirement,  of  course, 
varies  with  different  puj)ils.  One  pupil  may  show,  by  his  comprehension 
of  liis  first  preparatory  book,  liis  ability  to  take  the  test,  or  it  may  be  neces- 
sary to  read  two,  three  or  all  tlu»  preparatory  books  before  he  is  ready  for 
the  test  book.  But  whenever  the  pupil  is  ready  and  does  pass  the  test  book, 
he  is  given  a  certificate  of  promotion  to  the  next  higher  half  grade.  The 
test  books  have  l)een  arranged  so  that  the  test  chapters  represent,  as  fairly 
as  possible,  graded  stages  in  increased  but  usable  vocabulary.  Portions 
which  involve  special  and  more  or  less  unfamiliar  vocabulary,  or  which  show 
no  increase  in  vocabulary  over  the  previous  half  grade  are  elided  from  the 
test  material.     The  pupil's  i)romotion  is  thereby  made  to  depend   upon 

(10) 


actual  and  usable  lU'u  aiquirouients  of  readiiifr  power.  By  this  device  we 
have  cut  out  two  diseased  conditions  conunon.  and  more  or  less  necessary  in 
teaching  readint;  by  the  class  system :  (1)  promotion  upon  a  basis  merely  of 
the  amount  of  text  the  class  as  a  whole  has  covered,  or,  the  time  of  attend- 
ance, with(mt  accurate  test  of  efficiency;  for  this  we  have  substituted  ability 
to  pass  the  tirade's  i-c(|uirement  whenever  that  standard  may  he  reached; 
and  (2)  we  have  cut  out  the  injustice  of  requiring  pupils  to  learn,  in  the 
early  grades,  the  inuisual  or  technical  vocabidary  to  be  found  in  nnu-h 
poetry  or  some  special  descriptive  chapter  inserted  by  some  incompetent 
text-nu»ker  to  satisfy  a  thoughtless  vagary  of  his  personal  judgment. 

Explanation  of  Table.  In  the  first  colunui  is  given  a  symbol  of  the 
pupil's  name  for  purposes  of  reference. 

The  second  and  third  columns  give  the  age  of  the  pupil,  in  years  and 
months,  respectively,  at  the  time  of  beginning  the  first  record  listed. 

The  eight  succeeding  columns  give  the  number  of  days  the  pupil  used  in 
completing  the  half  grade  indicated  at  the  top,  exclusive  of  absences. 

The  column  of  dates  on  the  left  indicates  the  date  from  the  beginning  of 
the  first  record.  The  date  upon  the  right  is  that  of  the  completion  of  the 
test  record  and  the  time  intervening  represents  the  period  iLsed  in  com- 
pleting the  work  indicated,  inclusive  of  absences. 

The  column  headed  "Total"  gives  the  total  of  the  days.  The  column 
headed  "ab. "  shows  the  number  of  days  absence.  The  sum  of  the  days  and 
absences  accounts  for  the  school  days  between  the  dates.  The  column 
headed  "average"  gives  the  average  number  of  days  this  pupil  has  used  for 
each  half  grade.  It  is  obtained  by  dividing  the  total  days  i)y  the  number  of 
half  grades  indicated. 

The  number  of  days  in  our  school  half  year  is  95  and  comi)ari.son  of  each 
actual  record  with  the  95  days  furnishes  the  reader  with  a  key  to  the  rela- 
tive progress  made. 

If  the  figures  under  the  grade  headings  are  read  vertically,  we  may  note 
the  variation  in  progress  rates  of  different  pupils  doing  the  same  luiit  of 
work.  If  they  are  read  horizontally,  we  may  note  the  variation  in  rate  of 
the  same  pupil  as  he  passes  through  successive  half  grades.  For  illustra- 
tion, let  us  take  the  second  horizontal  line:  2  J.  A.  conunenced  the  high  third 
grade  at  the  age  of  7  years  and  5  months;  completed  the  high  third  in 
64  days,  and  the  low  fourth  in  76  days.  The  date  of  beginning  the  high 
third  was  August  3,  1914,  and  the  completion  of  the  low  fourth  was 
]\rarch  19,  1915,  representing  140  working  days  and  23  days  of  absence. 
The  average  time  for  each- half  grade  was  70  days,  or  20  to  23  days  less  than 
the  grade  standard  of  95  days. 

Or,  take  the  longer  record  7  O.  B.  below.  This  boy,  at  the  age  of  7  years 
and  9  months  entered  the  high  first  grade  and  by  the  successive  records  of 
36,  28,  64,  59,  34,  26,  and  64  days  for  each  half-grade,  respectively,  entered 
the  low  fifth  grade  :\Iay  2.  1915;  he  used  311  days  in  this  progress  and  was 
absent  a  total  of  33  days.  His  average  time  was  45  days  for  each  of  the 
seven  half  grades.     If  he  had  been  in  a  graded  class,  it  would  Iwve  taken 


him  6Go  days  (7  X  95;  instead  of  311  days,  provided  he  made  a  half  grade 
each  half  year;  and.  as  later  will  be  shown,  he  would  have  completed  not 
the  Fifth  reader,  but  the  Fourth  at  best. 

Record  of  Individual  Progress.     Primary  Reading. 


1.  C. 

2.  J. 

3.  E. 

4.  R. 

5.  B.  A. 

6.  N.  B. 

7.  O. 

8.  J. 

9.  J. 

10.  W.  B.. 

11.  R.  B.. 

12.  T. 

13.  S. 
U.   E. 

15.  C. 

16.  A. 

17.  R. 
IS.  R.  B. 
19.  E.  B. 


A... 
A... 
A... 
A... 


B... 
B... 


B... 
B... 
B... 
B... 
B.„ 
B... 


•20.  E. 

21.  R. 

22.  J. 

23.  E. 
21.  V. 


B... 
B... 
B... 
B... 
B... 


25.  H.  B... 
B... 


26.  0. 

27.  D. 

28.  E. 

29.  V. 

30.  E. 

31.  E. 

32.  W. 

33.  A. 

34.  F. 

35.  H. 

36.  R. 

37.  D. 

38.  D. 

39.  M. 

40.  G. 

41.  L. 

42.  M.  D.. 

43.  H.  D.. 

44.  A. 

45.  L. 

46.  X. 

47.  H.  E.. 

48.  L.  E.. 

49.  L. 
.tO.  R. 

51.  E. 

52.  O. 

53.  W.  P.. 

54.  B.  F.. 

55.  G. 

56.  R. 

57.  W.  F.. 

58.  P.  F.. 

59.  E.  F.- 

60.  R. 

61.  J. 

62.  V. 

63.  M. 

64.  J. 


B... 
B... 
C... 
C- 
C... 
C- 
C- 
C- 
C- 
D... 
G... 
D... 

D... 


D.. 
D.. 
D.. 


E... 

E... 
F... 
F... 


F.. 
F.. 


G... 
G... 
G... 
G... 
G... 


10 


6  i 
9 

6 
6  I 

5  I 

6  I 
8  I 
6  1 
6 
6 

6  { 
6 
6 

10 
10 

7 
10 

8 


87 


67 


70 


84  I  38 


44 


92  :  53  I 

89  j  71  ! 1 

54   37   27   75 


84  !  89 
85 

14  I  77 

73  30 


93  ,    85 


1 I 62  138 

6   87  I  162  

10  

9  76  113   34 

0  ... 


-.  63   54 

61   60  1 

86  !  35  ; 


21 


54 


64 


59 


34 


14 


18 


43 


57   76 


26   64 
36   60 


93  108 


113   52 


47   76   51 


49 


60  100   99 


76   45 


136  


- 72 

31   27 


60 


75   59 


88   26 


85 


44   25  I  35 


72 


34   26 


34 


, 1  65 

—I—-  39 

67  I ! 

71  112  ,  17 

50  ;  67 


. i  48   18  107 

67   60  I  49   42 
42   43   20   40 


56 
31 
55 
77 
162 


- ^ I  55  I  60 

74   13   19    7 

.1 '  43  I 

44 


71 


13   19 

'  43 

23  j  27  101 
30   29  


105   35 


43  108 
. —  20 


37 


10 


S8 


38 


45 
48 
36 
98 
73 
80 
42 
61 
86 
78 
63 
51 
52 
51 
87 
100 
125 
116 
35 


256 
309 
240 

65 
274 

87 
134 
270 
106 

85  ; 

2-22  ]  56 
272   54 


43 
45 
60 
33 
92 
29 
67 


53 


239 
67 
262 
260 
204 
114 
115 
162 
210 
43 
305 
162 
144 
254 
250 
71 
96 
200 
81 
179 
355 


33 
44 

68 
57 
58 
81 
30 


64 
125 


13  I  Jan. 

23  Aug. 
46  I  Apr. 

7  Jan. 

24  Aug. 
0  Nov. 

33  Sept. 

0  Jan. 

4  Jan. 
17  Jan. 
16  Aug. 

7  Aug. 

3  Jan. 

5  Jan. 


6  Aug. 

35  Jan. 
15  Aug. 

7  [  Aug. 

48  Aug. 
24  Nov. 

14  Jan. 
30  Feb. 
13  Jan. 

9  Jan. 

0  Nov. 

36  \  Jan. 
18  Oct. 

23  Aug. 
41  Aug. 

5  Aug. 

1  Apr. 

24  Jan. 
34  '  Sept. 
34  Jan. 

8  Jan. 
13  Jan. 

5  Sept. 
21  .\ug. 

6  Sept. 

5  Sept. 

6  Aug. 
1  Jan. 

40  Aug. 

25  May 

26  Sept. 
6  Jan. 

28  Jan. 

38  Aug. 

0  Aug. 

46  Aug. 

21  Aug. 

44  Jan. 

0  Jan. 

49  Aug. 
18  Aug. 

8  Aug. 

15  Jan. 
36  Jan. 

6  Jan. 

0  Jan. 

17  Aug. 

25  Oct. 

15  Jan. 

17  Aug. 


14, '15- Apr. 

3,'14-Mar. 
20,'14-May 

4, '14- Jan. 

3,"14-May 
30,'14-Apr. 
19,'13-May 

5,'15-May 

4,'15-Apr. 

5,'14-Jan. 

3,'14-Apr. 

4, '14- Apr. 

5,'14-Dec. 

5,'14-Mar. 

3,'14-May 

4,'13-Mar. 

3,'14-Mar. 

4,'13-Nov. 

3,'14-Apr. 
11,'14-May 

5,'14-May 
24, '14- Apr. 

6,'14-Apr. 

4,'14-Mar. 
13,'14-Mar. 

5,'14-Apr. 

5,'14-Apr. 

4,'13-Feb. 

3,'14-May 

3,'14-reb. 
14,'13-Nov. 

4,'14-May 

3,'13-Apr. 

4,'14-May 

4,'15-Apr. 

5,'14-May 

3,'14-Feb. 

3,'14-Apr. 

3,'13-Feb. 
16,'14-Mar. 

3,'14-Jan. 

4,'14-Feb. 

4,'13-May 

2,'13-Oct. 
10,'14-Feb. 

5.'14-Mar. 

5,'14-May 
18,'14-May 
18,'14-Feb. 

5,'14-Apr. 

3,  "13- June 

4,'14-May 

4,'15-Mar. 

4,'13-Apr. 

5,'14-May 
20, '14- Apr. 

5,'14-Apr. 

4,'14-May 

4,'15-May 

5,'15-Aug. 
12, 'i:^  Aug. 
26,'14-Apr. 

4,"14-Dec. 

4,'13-May 


3. 'IS 

9, '15 
18, '15 
14, '15 
24, '15 
22, '15 

2, '15 

2, '15 
27, '15 
IS, '15 
20,'15 
30, '15 
18, '14 
18,'15 
17, '15 
19, '15 
16, '15 
17, '14 

3, '15 
21, '15 

5, '15 

5, '15 
22, '15 
12, '15 
23, '15 
30, '15 

4,'15 
26, '15 
10, '15 
19, '15 

4, '15 
26, '15 
29, '15 
10, '15 
21, '15 
25, '15 

3, '15 
14, '15 
10, '15 
16, '15 

5, '15 

4, '15 
26, '15 
15, '14 
11, '15 

5, '15 

3, '15 
17, '15 
23, '15 
15, '15 

3, '14 
24, '15 
26, '15 
21, '15 
18, '15 
26, '15 
26, '15 

2, '15 
21, '15 
IS, '15 
20, '14 

4, '15 
17, '15 
20, '15 


(12) 


Record  of   Individual   Progress.     Primary    Reading— Continued. 

> 

.     .     .     !      . 


H... 
H... 
H... 
H... 


65.  E.  G.. 

C€.  E.  H.. 

67.  W.  H.. 

68.  F.  H.. 

69.  H.  H.. 

70.  A.  H.- 

71.  H.  H.. 

72.  L.  H.. 

73.  B. 
7-1.  G. 

75.  O. 

76.  G. 

77.  A.  H... 

78.  E.  H...| 

79.  F.  H... 

80.  A.  H..J 

51.  H.  J...J 

52.  L.  H.-J 

83.  E.  J...' 

84.  H.  J..-' 

85.  R.  J... 

86.  D.  J... 

87.  D.  J... 

88.  H.  J. .J 

89.  E.  J..,| 
VX).  C.  K...| 
91.  J.  K... 
9-2.  K.  K... 

93.  N.  K...I 

94.  K.  K...I 

95.  E.  K... 

96.  W.  K... 

97.  M.  L... 

98.  H.  L.-.; 

99.  J.  M...t 
100.  E.  M..  I 


5 
0  '. 

^i- 
9  L 

4  L 
0  . 
2  . 
6 

0  - 

0  . 

9  . 

0  . 

7  . 

0  . 

0  i 

0  '. 

7  . 

6  . 

8  . 

5  - 

1  . 

9  . 

7  . 
0  . 
4  . 

6  . 
4  . 
3 

4 

10 
0 
5 
6 
0 
2 
8 


81 


80 


ISO 


73   54 


81  I  20 


90 


178 
64 
85 
93 


93 


.|  80 

.1  77 


111 
83 
63 


37  

100  122 
37  j  60 


77  !  107 

37  ! 

95  !  83 


47 


111 

108 


34 


14 


68  :  62 


28 


100 
0 
41 


53 


86 


30   39   31 

41   17  


37  100   67 


47   36  .. 


47 


&3  

96    0   105 


206 
274 

188 ; 

233 
278  i 
151  1 
127 
101  1 
100  ; 
58  I 
75  ' 
312  j 
301 
178  ! 
145 
352  , 
208  ! 
263  ' 
214  ' 
271  I 
182  ' 

132  ; 

138  ! 
130 
222  ' 
90  I 
159 
202  i 
201  1 
259 
276  I 
111  i 
167  I 
115  ! 
156 
355 


69 
92 
63 
78 
70 
38 
64 
52 
34 
29 
38 
104 
62 
3 
73 
70 
70 
66 
54 
55 


Jan. 

Jan. 

Jan. 

Jan. 

Jan. 

Aug. 

Aug. 

Aug. 

Aug. 

Dec. 

Jan. 

Aug. 

Aug. 

Aug. 

Aug. 

Aug. 

Jan. 

Jan. 

Aug. 

Aug. 

Aug. 

Sept. 

Oct. 

Apr. 

Dec. 

Oct. 

Sept. 

Dee. 

Jan. 

Jan. 

Jan. 

Aug. 

Aug. 

Aug. 

Aug. 

Aug. 


5,'14-Mar. 

5,'14-May 

5, 13- Jan. 

5,'14-JIay 

5,'14-May 

3,'14-Apr. 

3.'14-Mar. 

3,'14-Feb. 
17,'14-Mar. 

9,'13-Mar. 

4,'15-Apr. 

3,'13-Feb. 
14, '12- Feb. 
14,'U-May 

3,'14-May 

4.'14-Mar. 

5,'14-Mar. 

5,  14-May 
26,'13-Xov. 
13,'13-Apr. 

3.'14-May 
14,'14-May 

8, '14-May 

3,'14-Mar. 

5,'13-May 

5,'14-Apr. 

3,'13-Feb. 

8,'13-Feb. 

5,'14-Jan. 

4, '14-May 

4, '14-May 

3.'14-Feb. 

4, '14-May 
10,'14-Apr. 

3,'14-May 

4,'13-May 


Records  in  Arithmetic  (Grammar  Grade).  The  second  series  dves 
the  ?rade  records  of  the  first  100  pupils  from  our  alphabetical  card  lists. 
The  dates  and  absences  are  not  given.  Features  similar  to  those  in  primary 
reading  are  to  be  noted. 


3—19474 


(13) 


Record  of  Individual   Progress.     Grammar  Grade  Arithmetic. 


1 

Low  5 

High  5 

Low  6 

High  6 

Low  7 

High  7 

Low  8 

Total 
liours 

.\verage 

1  for  haU 
j  grade 

1  M 

A 

49 

128 

179 

75 

39 

66 

45 

24 

103 

31 

303 

269 

44 

89 

166 

124 

170 

108 

157 

323 

225 

83 

153 

148 

23;) 

294 

216 

90 

76 

182 

268 

288 

326 

215 

204 

140 

242 

215 

99 

251 

222 

96 

250 

319 

288 

63 

33 

253 

110 

229 

243 

293 

173 

138 

SO 

173 

319 

130 

232 

275 

272 

128 

60 

266 

279 

81 

180 

228 

262 

309 

315 

234 

53 

327 

89 

2  J 

A 

75 

3  K 

A 

39 

4  F 

4 

66 

5.  Q. 

6.  F. 

7  M 

A           -.  

45 

B 

24 

..1  .. 

B 

103 

8  J 

B 

31 

70 

9  M 

B 

78 

91 

64 
60 

76 

10  N 

B. 

30 

74 

105 

68 

11  L 

B.  --   - - 

44 

12.  C. 

B 

43 

37 

46 
89 

40 

45 

13  E. 

B           

57 

14  B 

B 

81 
47 

43 

62 

15  W 

B 

41 

82 

57 

IS  S 

B. 

33 

40 

35 

36 

17  G 

B 

94 

o3' 

22 

83 

63 
24 
72 

79 

18.  B. 

B.-    

77 
131 

118 

33 

18 

54 

19  L 

B 

75 

20  H 

B 

1 

21  G 

B. 

65 
50 

88 
59 

_  . 

77 

•79   p 

B —  - 

39 

50 

23  G 

B 

96 

86 
79 
33 
45 
38 
67 
81 
63 
83 

57 
77 
65 

SO 

24.  M. 

B. 

68 
80 

48 
38 

22  1 

59 

25  B. 

B.  — 

54 

•^6  D 

B 

45 
38 
115 

45 

27.  N. 

B. 

38 

28  M. 

B.  -.        -    - 

91 

29.  B. 

B. ..  

100 
46 
85 

87 
80 
79 
45 

90 

30.  H. 

B..  

63 

36  1 

58 

31.  W. 

B.  .-   -     

79 

82 

.32.  C. 

B --  

54 
43 

62 

110 

54 
51 

54 

33.  F. 

B. 

68 

.34.  L. 

B.  .-     --  --  

80 
85 

60 
77 

70 

35.  D. 

C. 

80 

81 

36.  A. 

C -  

81 

42 

22 

48 

70 
51 

54 

37.  G. 

C.     -   _. 

50 

.38  J. 

C. 

63 

85 

103 

84 

39.  B. 

C. 

63 

27 

51 

81 

56 

40  C 

C 

C.  --  

46 

50 

48 

41.  A. 

49 

75 

47 

82 

64 

42.  A. 

c. 

c 

75 

93 

1.51 
95 

107 

43.  R. 

61 

46 

86 

70 

44.  A. 

c 

c 

35 

28 

32 

45.  R. 

33 
53 

46".  S 

C 

c.           

63 

137 

85 

47.  C. 

10 
69 

87 
30 

65 
66 
112 

35 

37 

48.  M. 

C.  -.       

94 
44 
66 
47 

49.  0. 

c. - 

SI 

.50.  A. 
51.  G. 

C 

c 

c 

C -.-  

76 

53 
67 
62 

144 

59 

74 

58 

.52.  B. 

69 

.5:^  E. 

80 
71 
91 

54.  A. 

D 

D 

D 

D 

E 

70 
70 

102 
80 
60 
62 

87 

:^o.   A. 

.56.  F. 

86 

54 

8  

&4 

(>5 

.57.  P. 
58.  R. 

48 

.38 
78 
63 

24 
86 

56' 

55 

47 
69 

50.  M. 
60.  M. 

E .... 

E 

F 

32 
128 

88 

89 

68 

61.  R. 

60 
33 

62.  H. 

F... 

95 
108 

96 
67 

42 
35 

69 

67 

63.  G. 

F 

70 

C4.  F. 

F 

81 

65.  B. 

F 

66 
31 
34 

122 
128 

44 

77 
91 
62 

29 

74 
34 
76 

41 

77 
62 
49 

45 

rK).  C. 

F 

77 

GO 

61 

57 

67.  p. 

F 

66 

68.  H. 

F 

78 

69.  B. 

F 

79 

70.  W 

49 

98 

91 

78 

71.  P. 

F.     

53 

72 

72.  L. 

G... 

81 

96 

78 



82 

(H) 


Record  of   Individual 

Progress.     G 

rammar  Gra 

de  Arithmetic — Continued 

Low  5 

High  5 

Low  6 

High  6 

Low  7      High  7 

T  -.».  0    i    Total 
LO"*    1     hours 

1 

Xver&ee 

for  half 

grade 

G. 
M. 
R. 
H. 
E. 
M. 
A. 
L. 
L. 
R. 
H. 
F. 
L. 
M. 
E. 
R. 
A. 
V. 
Z. 
W 
R. 
M. 
E. 
R. 
C. 
L. 
B. 
R. 

Q 

7« 

71 

58 

81 

1- 

184 

210 
68 
262 
170 
142 
293 
269 
286 
131 
81 
2S6 
233 
31 
239 
255 
41 
38 
276 
123 
299 
241 
250 
319 
213 
239 
246 
168 

67 

74. 

G 

Q                                 

58 

1 

70 

26 

42    

34 

7ti. 

G - — 

G. 

4» 

104 

109 

28 

88 

142 
74 
45 
51 
56 
53 

&5 

78 

68    ..-. 

71 

79 

G 

103            64 
57             48 
68    

81 
61 

74 

80 

G 

52 
87 
29 

54 

81 

G.                                

' 

75 
36 

72 

82. 
83 

G — - 

G 

G                     

13 
81 

33 

84 

70 
154 

51             82 
79 

52 

64 

85 

H 

117 

36 

H s - 

H.                   

31 

87 

77 

75            51 

S3 

m 

88 

H... 

H.                                -     - 

104 

151 

128 

m 

41 

<)0 

H - 

H 

38 



1 

\ 

<n 

61 

85 

59            71 
37             66 
84             21 
80       

20 

69 

<y> 

H.                   

41 

93. 

H... 

H 

H. 



29 
32 

72 
62 
46 
95 

93 
67 
129 
76 

m 

61 

95 

75 

84 

93 

H 

H 

H -— 

H _ 

H 

96 
86 
32 
88 

82 
117 
92 
75 
80 

66     — 

SO 

97 

107 

98 

51 
90 

:::::::::::::-- 

• 

80 

99 

31 

18  1 

50 

100 

1            84 

1                1 

FEATURES  TO  BE  NOTED. 

Each  Individual  Varies,  That  the  variation  in  the  rates  of  the  same 
piipiL  in.  different  grades,  is  often  as  great  as  that  between  different  pupils 
in  the  same  grade. 

The  degree  of  general  mentality  does  not  show  itself  as  a  conspicuous 
factor  in  many  of  our  records.  There  are  a  very  few  records  wliich  arc 
continuously  rapid,  continuously  slow  or  continuously  medium.  Variation 
is  the  rule — due  to  a  chief  extent  to  variation  in  ambition,  diligence,  interest 
or  to  particular  difficulties.  Probably  a  more  common  cause  has  been,  tlius 
far,  the  imperfection  of  the  course  of  study,  exercise  books,  new  methods  of 
instruction,  unavoidable  in  the  pioneer  stages  of  breaking  new  ground. 
The  estimate  may  be  ventured  that  over  half  the  slow  records  are  due  to  this 
latter  cause  and  they  are  therefore  not  likely  to  repeat  themselves. 

This  wide  variation  of  individual  rates  is  a  matter  for  serious  considera- 
tion by  the  many  schools  with  systems  of  promotions  l)ased  upon  the  assump- 
tion of  definite  groups  of  ' ' rapid, "  " medium, ' '  and  "slow ' '  pupils.  Pupils 
of  tliis  kind,  all  of  our  records  indicate,  are  exceptional  and  represent  a  very 
small  per  cent.     If  such  "types"  do  not  exist,  such  systems  have  no  basis. 

A  Slow  Record  Not  Permanently  Disabling.  That  pupils  recover 
from  the  difficulties  indicated  by  a  slow  record  and  seem  thereafter  none  the 
worse  for  the  experience — under  the  class  system  a  pupil  who  once  gets 
out  of  the  lockstep  rarely  recovers  from  the  shock  and  loss.  He  loses  bricks 
in  the  foundation  and  the  only  remedy  (if  it  is  one)  is  to  require  him  to 

(15) 


repeat  the  grade.  Under  the  individual  system,  the  pnpil  who  meets  a 
difficulty,  wrestles  Avith  it.  conquers  it  in  his  own  time,  and  he  proceeds  with 
the  glory  of  conquest  and  is  none  the  worse  in  point  of  thoroughness.  Note 
49  N.  D.,  whose  second  record  was  112  days,  yet  who  completes  the  primer, 
first,  second,  third,  and  fourth  readers  in  262  days  or  in  less  than  a  year  and 
a  half.  His  struggle  and  delay  with  the  second  reader  seems,  in  fact,  to 
give  him  strength,  for  he  tosses  off  the  others  in  short  order.  Under  the 
lockstep,  possibly,  this  boy  would  have  repeated  the  low  second  and  have 
become  hopelessly"  discouraged. 

The  Chief  Cause  of  Retaxdation  in  Classes.  That  few  pupils  seem  to 
have  their  difficulties  in  the  same  grade — the  difficulties,  so  far  as  slow 
records  may  indicate  therein,  are  distributed  differently  for  each.  This 
fact  signifies  that  slowness  of  any  pupil  at  any  particular  point,  so  far  as 
the  cause  is  a  difficulty  of  comprehension,  is  due  to  his  own  difficulty — not 
to  that  of  others.  The  time  he  uses  to  repair  his  weakness  is  used  to  tamp 
down  his  comprehension  thoroughly — it  is  not  wasted  time  due  to  waiting 
for  others  to  comprehend  something  he  already  knows.  Fifty  different 
pupils  may  have  fifty  different  sticking  places  and  under  the  class  system, 
all  wait  for  each ;  or  else  drag  one  another  ahead  before  the  difficulties  in 
foundation  are  safely  overcome.  "We  have  here  brought  in  view  the  chief 
causes  of  retardation — the  lockstep  system  can  not  permit  each  pupil  to  take 
the  time  to  repair  his  own  shortcomings  at  the  right  times.  Consequently  a 
large  number  must  pass  on,  failing  to  grasp  essentials  which  constitute  the 
foundation. 

Ag-e  Not  an  Important  Factor.  That  the  age  of  the  pupil  in  years  is 
not  an  important  nor  significant  factor.  The  age  of  pupils  in  years  since 
birth,  within  the  limits  of  two  or  three  years,  has  received  altogether  too 
much  emphasis.  Children  eight  years  of  age  are  frequently  only  six  years 
in  mental  development,  and  vice  versa. 


(16) 


VARIATION  IN  RATES  OF  PROGRESS. 

The  vital  question  upon  which  hincres  the  essential  issue  of  instruction 
by  classes  is  whether  or  not  the  variation  in  the  rates  of  progress  of  different 
pupils  is  really  so  great  as  to  demand  the  overthrow  of  this  system  of 
education.  . 

This  variation  is  very  easily  and  accurately  demonstrable.  It,  m  any 
class,  we  arrange  conditions  to  allow  each  pupil  to  make  his  progress  at  his 
own  rate,  giving  instruction  individually,  we  may  record  the  time  each  has 
used  in  completing  the  same  unit  of  work.  These  time  records  may  be  com- 
pared one  with  the  other  and  the  variation  becomes  a  matter  of  black  and 
white.  In  the  fact  subjects,  such  as  number  arithmetic,  reading,  etc.,  the 
comparison  admits  of  very  exact  measurements. 

PRIMARY  READING. 

Such  records  are  submitted  below.  The  table  gives  such  data  compiled 
from  the  records  in  reading.  The  number  of  days  each  pupil  has  iLsed  to 
complete  the  successive  half  grades  is  recorded.  The  records  have  been 
arranged  in  the  order  of  fastest  to  slowest. 

Explanation  of  Tables.  Taking,  for  illustration,  the  low  first  grade, 
the  table  shows  that  the  fastest  pupil  completed  the  low  first  grade  (primer) 
in  33  days,  the  next  fastest  used  43  days,  the  next  45  days,  and  so  on  to  the 
slowest  (111  days) .  The  variation  for  completing  the  first  half  grade  there- 
fore is  between  the  extreme  limits  of  33  and  111  days,  from  fastest  to 

slowest. 

In  the  high  first  grade,  the  fastest  pupil  completed  the  State  First 
Reader  (Progressive  Road  to  Reading)  in  14  days  and  the  slowest  in  ISO 
days.  The  fastest  pupil  completed  the  low  second  grade,  the  State  Second 
Reader  (Brooks'  Second  Reader)  in  17  days  and  the  slowest  in  172  days; 
and  so  with  each  successive  series.  This  does  not  mean,  of  course,  that  the 
fastest  pupil  in  the  primer  is  the  fastest  in  the  first  reader,  as  reference  to 
the  preceding  table  will  show.  The  fastest  in  the  second  reader  was  the 
ninth  from  the  slowest  in  the  first  reader. 

Low  1 :  State  Primer  (Free  and  Treadwell)— 33,  43,  44,  45,  46,  50,  54,  58, 
61,  63,  63,  67,  67,  67,  68,  70,  71,  71,  72,  73,  73,  74,  75,  77,  78,  79,  80,  81,  81, 
83,  84,  84,  84,  86,  86,  87,  87,  89,  89,  89,  90,  91,  92,  111,  111.  Total  days— 
3,327.     Total  pupils — 45. 

High  1:  State  First  Reader  (Progressive  Road  to  Reading.  Book  I)— 14, 
20,  21.  25,  27,  29,  30,  31,  35,  35,  36,  37,  38,  38,  46,  47,  49,  49,  50,  50,  51,  52, 
53,  55.  56,  59,  60,  64,  65,  65,  66,  67,  68,  70,  71,  76,  77,  77.  77,  78,  80,  80,  80, 
82.  82,  83,  85,  85,  86,  89,  89,  90,  93,  93,  98.  98.  99.  112,  144,  162.  162,  165, 
176,  178,  180.     Total  days— 4.785.     Total  pupils— 65. 


(17) 


Low  2:  State  Second  Keader  (Brooks'  Second  Keader)— 17,  23,  27,  28, 
30,  30,  30,  32,  33,  34,  36,  37,  37,  37,  37,  37,  39,  43,  48,  50,  59,  59,  62,  63,  64, 
65,  65,  67.  68,  68,  71,  73.  73,  73,  74,  77,  87,  88,  88,  89,  89,  89,  90,  91,  92,  93, 
95,  96,  100,  104,  105,  108,  111,  113,  120,  144,  158,  164,  172,  182.  Total 
clays— 4,434.     Total  pupils— 60. 

High  2:  State  Second  Reader  (Brooks'  Second  Reader)— 7,  13,  19,  20, 
21,  21,  24,  24,  26,  27,  29,  29,  33,  34,  34,  35,  35,  35,  36,  36,  37,  39,  42,  44,  47, 
47,  53,  54,  54,  55,  55,  59,  60,  60,  64,  67,  69,  69,  72,  75,  76,  83,  85,  87,  88,  91, 
93,  102,  109,  109,  116,  117,  138.     Total  days— 2,954.     Total  pupils— 53. 

Low  3:  State  Third  Reader  (Stepping  Stones  to  Literature,  Book  III)  — 
0,  8,  14,  14,  14,  21,  21,  26,  28,  29,  30,  31,  35,  36,  37,  37,  37,  38,  39,  41,  41, 
42,  43,  43,  43,  44,  47,  48,  48,  49,  49,  50,  53,  53,  53,  54,  55,  55.  56,  57,  57,  58, 
59,  60,  60,  60,  62,  64,  64,  65,  66,  67,  69,  69,  72,  73,  75,  76,  83,  87,  88,  93.  97, 
101,  106.     Total  days— 3,350.     Total  pupils— 65. 

High  3 :  State  Third  Reader  (Stepping  Stones  to  Literature,  Book  III)  — 
0,  0,  7,  17,  18,  18,  20,  24,  25,  26,  26,  27,  27,  28,  29,  30,  31,  33,  34,  36.  37, 
39,  39,  39,  40,  41,  43,  44,  44,  44,  44,  45,  45,  47,  47,  47,  49,  50,  51,  54,  54,  57, 

58,  58,  60,  60,  60,  61,  62,  67,  69,  72,  74,  75,  76,  83,  84,  84,  88,  91,  96,  96,  97, 
100,  100,  169.     Total  days— 3,396.     Total  pupils— 66. 

Low  4 :  State  Fourth  Reader  (Stepping  Stones  to  Literature,  Book  IV) — 
0,  9,  17,  18,  24,  25,  26,  28,  31,  31,  34,  34,  36,  36,  38,  40,  41,  42,  43.  43.  43, 
44,  45,  46,  46,  47,  49,  51,  52,  53,  54,  54,  57,  57,  58,  59,  62,  62,  63,  64,  64,  65, 
67,  69,  73,  75,  76,  80,  89,  89,  93,  94,  97,  98,  100,  107.  113.  133.  136.  Total 
days— 3,380.     Total  pupils— 59. 

High  4:  State  Fifth  Reader  (Stepping  Stones  to  Literature,  Book  V)  — 
2,  7,  9,  10,  13,  24,  25,  26,  27,  27,  35,  38.  39,  46.  47,  49,  51,  52,  52,  53,  55, 

59,  59,  60,  60,  64,  65,  68,  72,  74,  76,  81,  86,  88,  88,  93,  93,  94,  98,  99.  103, 
105,  106.     Total  days— 2.478.     Total  pupils— 43. 

Variation  in  Rates  of  Progress  in  Integer  Numbers. 

The  second  table  gives  the  variation  in  the  rates  of  different  pupils  in 
the  subject  of  the  integer  number — column  addition,  subtraction,  multipli- 
cation, short  division,  compound  multiplication  and  long  division.  These 
records  begin  in  the  second  grade  with  column  addition  and  extend  through 
subtraction,  multiplication,  short  division,  compound  multiplication  and 
long  division.  Pupils  enter  school  Avith  varying  degrees  of  number  knowl- 
edge. Each  is  taken  at  his  point  in  progress  and  in  a  preparatory  course 
is  taught,  if  he  is  not  already  proficient,  to  count  serially,  by  10 's.  by 
5's,  by  2's,  even  and  odd,  to  add  10  and  any  number,  20  and  any  luunber, 
30  and  any  number,  etc.  When  this  preparatory  course,  which  may  take 
any  time  from  a  month  to  the  entire  first  j^ear,  is  completed  the  pupil  is 
rated  as  "low  second  grade."  The  work  of  this  half  grade  is  to  learn  all 
the  additive  combinations  and  column  addition  represented  by  the  com- 
pletion of  the  first  half  of  Exercise  Book  No.  21. 

(18) 


The  high  second  grade  covers  the  completion  of  Exercise  Book  No.  21 
and  the  first  half  of  Exercise  Book  No.  22,  representing  snlitraetion  and 
iiniltiplication. 

The  low  third  grade  covers  short  division;  the  high  third,  compound 
Iiniltiplication  and  long  division  and  integer  problems.  In  the  low  and 
higli  fourth,  we  are  now  doing  fractions,  decimals  with  problems — the  work 
usually  occupying  the  fifth  grade  of  class  systems. 

The  time  spent  by  pupils  in  arithmetic  varies  somewhat  in  the  different 
grades  and  also  with  pupils.  The  usual  time  given  to  arithmetic  by  us  has 
been  30  minutes  daily  in  the  first  grade,  40  minutes  in  the  second  and  60 
minutes  in  the  third  and  fourth  grades,  distributed  in  periods  of  10  minutes 
in  the  i)rimary  grades.  The  ancient  dogma  that  children  can  not  and  must 
not  l)e  taught  arithmetic  before  they  are  eight  years  old  rests  upon  evidence 
of  doubtful  tradition.  In  this  instance,  as  in  many  others,  it  appears  that 
age,  based  upon  years  since  birth,  is  not  a  very  stable  or  reliable  factor  in 
educational  issues.  Some  people  reach  eighty  years  of  life  and  never  reach 
eight  years  of  comprehension. 

Addition— 15,  16,  19,  20,  20,  21,  23,  23,  24,  26,  26,  27,  28,  29,  29,  29,  30, 
30,  30,  30,  31,  32,  33,  34,  36,  37,  39,  41,  42,  42,  42,  42,  43,  43,  43,  43,  44,  44, 
44,  44,  45,  46,  46,  47,  48,  48,  48,  48,  49,  50,  51,  51,  51,  52,  53,  54.  55,  57,  58, 
59,  61,  62,  62,  69,  73,  74,  74,  74,  85,  86,  87,  92,  96,  116.  117.  120.  Total 
days — 3,658.     Total  pupils — 76. 

Subtraction  and  Multiplication— 26,  36,  38,  39,  41,  47,  47.  48.  50,  50,  50, 
52,  52,  53,  54,  54,  58,  59,  59,  60,  61,  61,  62,  63,  63,  64,  65,  65,  65,  66,  67, 
67,  68,  68,  74,  76,  82,  84,  85,  86,  87,  87,  88,  88,  93,  93,  95,  99,  102,  102,  104, 
118,  120,  145.     Total  days— 3,786.     Total  pupils— 54. 

Short  Division— 17,  18,  23,  23,  25,  29,  29,  30,  31,  31,  32,  32,  32,  33,  33, 
34,  35,  36,  37,  38,  39,  40,  41,  41,  41,  41,  42,  42,  43,  43,  44,  45,  45,  46,  47,  50, 
51,  56,  58,  58,  59,  61,  62,  62,  66,  67.  68,  68,  68,  72,  73,  73,  74,  74,  77,  77,  79, 
81,  82,  84,  85,  89,  92,  94,  97,  100,  100,  120.  Total  days— 3,715.  Total 
pupils — 68. 

Compound  Multiplication  and  Long  Division— 15,  21,  25,  30,  31.  32,  33, 
34,  35,  35,  43,  43,  43,  44,  44,  46,  46,  48,  50,  51,  51,  51,  53,  55,  55,  59,  60,  60, 
61,  64,  65,  66,  67,  67,  68,  69,  69,  69,  70,  70,  72,  80,  80,  82,  82,  82.  85,  91,  92, 
95,  96,  96,  100,  100,  102,  105,  109,  119,  120,  126.  Total  days— 3,912.  Total 
pupils — 60. 

Variation  in  Rates  of  Progress  in  Arithmetic. 
Addition  and  Subtraction  of  Fractions  and  Decimals,  and  Text  Prob- 
lems—13,  19,  21,  21,  22,  23,  25.  27,  31,  31,  31,  32,  32,  33,  33,  35.  35,  35,  37, 
38,  38,  39,  41,  44,  44,  45,  45,  45,  46,  46,  48,  49,  50,  51,  51,  53,  54.  55,  56,  57, 
57,  57,  58,  58,  59,  59,  59,  60,  61,  62,  63,  63,  65,  65,  65,  65,  68,  70,  70,  70,  71, 
71,  72,  72,  73,  73,  73,  74,  74,  74,  75,  75,  75,  76,  76,  76,  76,  77,  78,  78,  78,  78, 
78,  78,  79,  79,  79,  80,  80,  80,  80,  80,  81,  81,  81,  81,  82,  83,  83,  84.  85.  85,  85, 
85,  85,  86,  87,  87,  88,  88,  93,  94,  96,  96,  96,  99,  104,  108.  114.  115.  118.  120, 
127,  128,  132.     Total  days— 8,380.     Total  pupils- 125. 

(19) 


Multiplication  and  Division  of  Fractions  and  Decimals ;  Denominate 
Numbers.     Text  Problems— 11,  22,  22,  24,  28,  28,  29,  31,  32,  33,  35,  36,  36,  36, 

37,  37,  38,  38,  40,  42,  42,  44,  45,  45,  46,  48,  49,  49,  49,  50,  50,  51,  51,  52,  53, 

54,  54,  55,  55,  57,  58,  59,  60,  60,  61,  61,  62,  62,  62,  63,  63,  63,  63,  66,  66,  67, 

67,  68,  69,  70,  71,  72,  73,  74,  75,  75,  75,  76,  76,  76,  76,  77,  77,  78,  78,  78,  79, 
79,  80,  80,  80,  80,  81,  81,  81,  81,  82,  82,  82,  82,  82,  83,  83,  84,  85,  86,  86,  87. 
87,  87,  88,  88,  89,  89,  90,  91,  91,  92,  92,  93,  94,  94,  96,  98,  99,  100,  102,  102. 
103,  103.  104,  108,  111,  115,  116,  117,  128,  131,  151.  Total  days— 9,126. 
Total  pupils— 130. 

Advanced  State  Text  to  Percentage  Review  and  Advance — 22,  24,  24, 
26,  28,  29,  29,  29,  31,  31,  31,  33,  33,  33,  33,  36,  36,  37,  39.  41,  42,  43,  44,  44. 
45,  46,  46,  46,  46,  47,  48,  48,  49,  50,  50,  51,  52,  53,  53.  53.  53,  53,  53,  54,  55, 

55,  56,  57,  57,  58,  58,  59,  60,  60,  61,  61,  62,  62,  62,  62,  63,  64,  65,  66,  66,  66, 

68,  68,  69,  71,  71,  72,  74,  74,  75,  75,  76,  77,  77,  78,  78,  79,  80,  80,  80,  80,  81, 

81,  81,  82,  85,  87,  88,  89,  89,  90,  90,  90,  91,  91,  91,  91,  92.  92,  93,  94,  94,  94, 
94,  95,  95,  97,  98,  100,  103,  106,  109,  109,  110,  113,  114.  118,  121,  128,  131, 
132,  144.  151.     Total  days— 8,855.     Total  pupils— 128. 

Cases  I  and  II  of  Percentage,  State  Text  and  Exercise  Book  No.  29 — 24. 
26,  29,  31,  31,  33,  33,  34,  38,  41,  43,  43,  43,  44,  44,  45,  45,  45,  45,  46,  46,  47, 
48,  49,  51,  51,  52,  52,  52,  52,  53,  53,  54,  54,  56,  56,  58,  60.  60,  61,  61,  61,  62, 
62.  62,  63,  63,  63,  63,  64,  64,  64,  65,  66,  66,  66,  67,  68,  69,  70,  71,  71,  72,  72, 

74,  74,  74,  75,  76,  77,  77,  77,  78,  78,  78,  79,  79,  79,  80,  80.  80,  81,  81,  81.  82, 

82,  82,  82,  82,  83,  83,  83,  83,  83,  85,  85,  86,  86,  87,  87,  87,  89,  90,  90,  90,  91, 
91,  93,  93,  93,  94,  95,  95,  95,  99,  100,  102,  106,  106.  108.  108.  110,  114,  115. 
118,  121.  122,  128,  128,  129,  131,  137,  142,  150,  154.  Total  days— 10,116. 
Total  pupiLs— 135. 

Case  III  of  Percentage,  Commission,  Banking  and  Interest;  Advanced 
State  Text  and  Exercise  Book  No.  30—10,  14,  18,  24,  26,  27,  28,  29,  30,  30, 
33,  34,  34,  34,  34,  34,  35,  37,  37,  37,  37,  38,  38,  38,  39,  39.  39,  40,  40,  41,  42, 
42,  42,  42,  42,  43,  43,  44,  45,  45,  46,  46,  46,  47,  47,  48,  49,  50,  50,  50,  51,  53, 
54,  54,  54,  54,  55,  57,  57,  59,  62,  62,  63,  63,  65,  65,  66,  67,  67,  67,  67,  67,  68, 
68,  6S,  69,  69,  71,  75,  75,  75,  75,  76,  77,  77,  79,  80,  80,  81,  82,  82,  83,  84,  84. 
86,  87,  88,  91,  95,  95,  96,  103,  125,  144,  146,  151.  Total  days— 6,197.  Total 
pupils — 106. 

Trade  Discount,  Insurance,  Taxes,  Duties  with  Review — 8,  13,  13,  16,  17, 
18,  19,  19,  21,  21,  22,  22,  25,  27,  29,  32,  33,  34,  35,  35,  35,  36,  36,  36,  37,  37, 

38,  38,  39,  39,  42,  42,  44,  46,  46,  46,  47,  48,  48,  50,  50,  51,  51,  51,  52,  52,  54, 

56,  57,  57,  57,  58,  62,  63,  64,  64,  65,  65,  66,  66,  67,  69,  69,  70,  70,  71,  71,  72, 
73,  74.  74,  76,  78,  81,  82,  82,  83,  S6,  87,  89,  99,  110.  112.  121.  Total  days— 
4,416.     Total  pupils— 84. 

Areas  of  Plane  Figures,  Square  Root,  and  Applications  (Exercise  Boolvs 
Nos.  31  and  32)— 20,  23,  26,  35,  35,  35,  36,  38,  40,  40,  41,  42,  42,  44,  45,  46, 
47,  49,  51,  51,  52,  52,  53,  53,  54,  54,  54,  55,  55,  57,  59.  59,  61,  62,  62,  64,  65, 

67,  69,  70,  77,  77,  80,  81,  81,  82,  86,  87,  88,  100,  101,  105.  Total  days— 2,996. 
Total  pupils— 52. 

(20) 


Variation  in  Rates  of  Progress  in  History. 
Primary  Text  ^Tliomas'  Primary  United  States  History)— 30.  32,  33,  33, 

35,  35,  35,  36,  38,  38,  39,  40,  40,  40,  40,  40,  41,  41,  42,  42,  42.  43,  43,  45,  45, 
48  48  48,  49,  49,  49,  49,  49,  49,  52,  52,  53,  55,  55,  56,  56,  57,  58,  58,  58,  59, 
60',  6l|  64,  65,  66,  67,  68,  68,  68,  69,  72,  72,  73,  74,  74,  74,  75,  79,  82,  82,  83, 
83^  84,  90,  93,  95,  97,  100,  105,  111,  113,  115.  Total  days— 4,657.  Total 
pupils — 78. 

Variation  in  Rates  of  Prog:ress  in  History. 

Completion  of  first  half  of  State  Series  Text  (Mc:Ma.ster's  Brief)— 19, 
26,  28,  28,  29,  31,  32,  38,  38,  38,  38,  39,  39,  40,  40,  41,  41,  43,  43,  44,  45,  45, 
47,  48,  50,  50,  52,  53,  53,  54,  55,  59,  59,  61,  62,  64,  64,  65,  65.  6S,  68.  71,  72, 
74,  76,  76,  78,  78,  78,  79,  79,  81,  82,  82,  82,  85,  85,  86,  86,  88,  89.  89,  89,  90, 
91.  91,  92,  92,  92,  92,  93,  93,  93,  94,  95,  96,  98,  99,  100.  101.  101.  102,  102, 
102,  104,  105,  106,  109,  111,  113,  118.  119,  120,  122,  123,  123.  123.  124.  129, 
liSO,  130,  136,  140.     Total  days— 7,981.     Total  pupils- 103. 

Variation  in  Rates  of  Progress  in  American  History. 

Last  half  of  State  Series  Text  (MeMaster's)— 24,  28,  30,  32,  33.  33,  36, 

36,  38,  40,  40,  41,  45,  46,  47,  48,  51,  51,  51,  52,  52,  53,  53,  54,  54,  54,  56,  56, 
57,  57,  59,  61,  61,  62,  63,  63,  63,  63,  63,  64,  64,  65,  66,  67,  67,  68,  68.  68.  68, 

69,  70,  71,  71,  71,  71,  71,  72,  73,  73,  74,  74,  74,  75,  75,  77,  77.  77.  77.  79,  79, 
79,  79,  80,  80,  84.  85,  86,  88,  89,  91,  91,  93,  93,  96,  99,  99,  99.  101.  101,  102, 
104,  106,  106,  107,  108,  134,  152.     Total  days— 6,743.     Total  pupils— 97. 

Variation  in  Rates  of  Progress  in  Grammar  (1). 
20,  23,  30,  36,  36,  36,  37,  38,  38,  40,  45,  45,  46,  46,  46,  46.  46,  47,  47,  47, 

49,  49,  50,  50,  50,  52,  52,  52,  52,  52,  52,  52,  53,  53,  54,  54,  54,  55,  55.  55,  55, 

56,  56,  57,  57,  57,  58,  58,  58,  58,  58,  58,  59,  59,  60,  60,  61,  61,  62,  62,  62,  63, 
63,  63,  63,  64,  64,  64,  65,  66,  67,  67,  70,  70,  71,  71,  72,  72,  74,  75,  75,  75,  79, 
79,  79,  81,  83,  87,  90,  92,  98,  106.     Total  days— 5,380.     Total  pupils— 92. 

Variation  in  Rates  of  Progress  in  Grammar  (2). 
24,  27,  28,  29,  31,  32,  33,  35,  37,  39,  39,  39,  39,  41.  41,  41.  41.  42.  42.  42, 
43,  43,  44,  44,  45,  45,  46,  46,  46,  46,  47,  47,  47,  48,  48,  48,  48,  48.  49,  50,  50, 

50,  51,  51,  51,  51,  52,  52,  52,  52,  53,  54,  55,  55,  55,  56,  56,  57,  57,  57,  57,  57, 

57,  58,  58,  59,  59,  60,  62,  62,  63,  63,  64,  65,  65,  65,  66,  66.  67.  67.  69.  69,  70, 

70,  70,  71,  72,  74,  75,  78,  79,  87,  95.     Total  days— 4,936.     Total  pupils— 93. 

Variation  in  Rates  of  Progress  in  Grammar  (3). 

24  25,  27,  28,  30,  32,  34,  35,  35,  36,  37,  37,  37,  38,  SS,  39,  40,  41,  41,  43, 
43  44  45,  46,  46,  46,  46,  46,  47,  48,  49,  49,  49,  49,  51,  51,  52,  52,  52,  53,  54, 
54  55',  55,  55,  57,  58,  59,  61,  61,  62,  63,  63,  64,  64,  65,  66,  6S,  69,  70,  72,  72, 
73!  74,  74,  74,  74,  75,  75,  77,  78,  78,  81,  82.  83,  84,  85,  87,  87,  88,  91,  91,  94, 
102,  102,  107,  110.     Total  days— 5,153.     Total  pupils— 87. 


4—19474  (21) 


Variation  in  Rates  of  Progress  in  Language  (Exercise  Book  No.  42). 

15,  18.  19,  20.  21,  23,  23,  25,  27,  28,  28,  28,  28,  28,  29,  29,  29,  29,  31,  31, 
32,  32,  32,  32,  34,  35,  35,  36,  36,  36,  37,  37,  38,  39,  40,  41,  42,  43,  43,  43,  45, 
45,  46,  46.  47.  47,  49,  49,  54,  54,  54,  56,  57,  57,  58,  58,  58,  58,  59,  60,  60,  61, 
63,  64.  68,  68,  68,  73,  73,  81,  82,  85,  87.  88.  Total  days— 3,330.  Total  pu- 
pils— 74. 

Variation  in  Rates  of  Progress  in  Language  (Exercise  Book  No.  43). 

Low  6  and  High  6—9,  13,  14,  14,  14,  15,  16,  17,  17,  17,  18,  18,  19,  19,  20, 
20,  21,  22,  23,  23,  23,  23,  23,  25,  25,  25,  25,  25,  25,  25,  25,  26,  27,  27,  28,  28, 
29,  29,  31,  34.  35,  36,  36,  36,  37,  38,  38,  38,  39,  39,  40,  41,  42,  42,  42,  43,  43, 
44,  44,  45,  45,  45,  45,  45,  46,  46,  46,  46,  46,  48,  48,  49,  50,  50,  50,  53,  53,  53, 
54,  54,  54,  55.  55,  56,  56,  57,  57,  57,  58,  59,  61,  61.  61.  63.  63.  64,  64,  69,  70, 
71,  93.     Total  days— 3,951.     Total  pupils— 101. 

Variation  in  Rates  of  Progress  in  Language  (Exercise  Book  No.  44), 

Low  7  and  High  7—33,  35,  36,  36,  36.  37,  37,  37,  37,  37,  38,  38,  39,  40, 
40.  41.  42.  42.  43.  43,  43,  44,  44,  44,  45,  46,  47,  54,  54,  55,  55,  56,  56,  57,  59, 
60,  63.  67.  72.  79.     Total  days— 1,867.     Total  pupils— 40. 


FEATURES  TO  BE  NOTED. 

The  Excessively  Rapid  and  Excessively  Slow  Records.  While  the 
total  variation,  in  most  series,  is  extremely  wide,  it  will  be  noted  that  the 
first  few  rates  at  the  beginning,  and  the  last  few  at  the  end,  are  exceptional. 
They  do  not  conform  to  the  usual  evenness  of  variation.  Most  of  these  may 
be  regarded  as  sporadic  and  due  to  accidental  conditions  not  likely  to  be 
repeated.  In  fact,  as  will  be  later  shown,  few  records  of  either  great 
rapidity  or  great  slowness  are  repeated  by  the  same  pupil.  The  amount  of 
work  assigned  to  a  half-grade  has  already  been  determined  by  previous 
records  and  this  has  been  fixed  by  what  the  slowest  pupil,  under  normal  and 
legitimate  conditions,  has  accomplished  in  95  days  (one-half  a  school  year), 
allowing  one  hour's  work  per  day.  In  a  few  cases  these  records  show  that 
perfect  adjustment  of  the  amount  of  work  assigned  to  a  grade  has  not  yet 
been  reached,  but  changes  in  quantity  of  work  have  already  been  made  and 
will  show  in  later  records.  Consequently,  the  records  exceeding  95  days 
may  be  regarcled  of  little  significance  except  that  they  show  need  of  adjust- 
ment. The  fastest  legitimate  records  are  usually  in  the  vicinity  of  19  or  20 
hours  (or  days),  making  the  range  of  variation  between  the  extremes  of 
19  or  20  and  95  or  100— a  ratio  of  1  to  5. 

Variation  Is  Evenly  Distributed.  The  rates  between  the  extremes  of 
19  to  95.  when  there  are  enough  of  them,  are  usually  very  evenly  distributed. 
There  is  a  .slight  unevenness  approaching  either  extremity,  but  as  a  rule  the 
evenness  of  this  distribution  is  singular.  Rates  are  nowhere  bunched  in 
groups  in  any  way  to  offer  justification  for  group  teaching. 


(22) 


Subjects  Follow  the  Same  Law  of  Variation.  The  features  of  varia- 
tion arc  practically  the  same  in  every  .sul)ject  when  the  number  of  pupils  is 
approximately  the  same. 

The  General  Significance.  These  figures  forcibly  display  their  own 
significance.  They  at  once  declare  the  futility  of  making  the  lockstep  class 
system,  by  any  modification  or  patching,  serve  the  purposes  for  which 
schools  are  maintained.  When  we  once  realize  that  in  every  class  of  fifty 
pupils,  proceeding  in  monotonous  lockstep.  there  is  one  pupil  who  can  do  in 
one  month  what  another  pupil  will  require  five  months  to  finish,  that  the 
other.s  are  very  evenly  distributed  between  these  extremes,  and  the  reason- 
ably slowest  can  make  faster  progress  than  the  class  in  lockstep,  we  can  no 
longer  be  content  with  schooling  l)y  the  lockstep.  It  makes  clear  why  there 
are  so  many  repeaters.  Avhy  there  are  so  many  disinterested,  bored  pupils. 

There  is  only  one  line  of  argument  possible — to  di.spute  the  facts.  If 
any  one  questions  them,  it  is  easy  to  disprove  or  verify  thera.  It  would  cost 
very  little  for  any  city  to  try  out  a  group  of  50  pupils  upon  the  individual 
plan  for  six  moiitlis.  At  most,  under  unfavorable  conditions,  it  would  cost 
only  the  salary  of  an  additional  teacher  and  a  few  dollars'  Avorth  of  extra 
aids.  Fix  no  set  lessons,  agree  to  promote  pupils  upon  completion  of  the 
half-grade  and  take  care  of  the  situation.  Then  any  one  may  learn  the 
facts  at  first  hand. 


(2S) 


RECORDS   OF   SAME   PUPILS   THROUGH   SUCCESSIVE    GRADES. 

AVe  may  now  take  up  the  data  concerning  the  progress  of  the  same  pupil 
through  successive  grades  in  the  same  subject.  The  figures  upon  this  phase 
of  the  subject  are  necessarily  limited  because  our  records  extend  baclavard 
only  two  years  at  best,  and  the  majority  are  for  shorter  periods.  Of  some 
pupils  we  have  the  time  record  for  only  one  half-grade ;  for  others  we  have 
records  for  two,  three,  four,  five,  six  and,  in  a  few  instances,  for  seven  half- 
grades.  We  have  grouped  in  each  subject  the  records  according  to  the 
number  of  half-grades  completed.  The  standard  time  for  records  of  one 
half-grade  Avill,  of  course,  be  95  hours;  for  two  half-grades,  190  hours 
(95  X  2)  ;  for  three  half -grades,  285  hours  (95  X  3)  ;  for  four  half -grades, 
380  hours  (95  X  4)  ;  for  five  half -grades,  475  hours  (95  X  5)  ;  for  six  half- 
grades,  570  hours  (95X6);  for  seven  half -grades,  665  hours  (95X7). 
Records  which  exceed  these  standards  are  excessive  and  represent  retarda- 
tion.    Those  which  fall  below  these  standards  are  accelerated  rates. 

For  convenience  of  ready  significance,  we  have  given  the  average  time 
each  pupil  has  used  in  completing  a  half -grade— found  by  dividing  the 
total  hours  by  the  number  of  half -grades.  In  the  first  table  (Primary 
Reading),  the  records  are  in  days,  not  hours,  for  reasons  already  ex- 
plained.    All  other  tables  are  in  hours. 

Explanation  of  Tables.  The  first  series  means  that,  taking  all  pupils 
in  primary  reading,  of  whom  we  have  as  yet  only  records  for  one  half- 
grade,  each  has  completed  this  half-grade  in  the  days  represented— 43, 
43,  58,  and  so  on.  Each  could  have  used  95  days,  the  grade  standard; 
those  M'ho  have  exceeded  95  days  are  retarded  to  the  extent  represented 
by  the  excess  of  days. 

In  the  second  series,  we  have  the  records  of  those  who  have  completed 
two  half-grades.  The  sum  of  each  has  been  taken  as  shown  in  upper  line ; 
the  maximum  standard  is  190  days,  with  which  each  may  be  compared. 
The  average  of  each  as  shown  in  lower  line  is  obtained  by  dividing  the 
upper  number  by  2  and  disregarding  fractions.  Thus,  the  fastest  pupil 
completed  two  half-grades  (one  year)  in  65  days  or  3^  months  (20  days  in 
school  month)  ;  this  is  an  average  rate  of  33  days  per  half- grade  or  a 
little  less  than  1^  months.  The  slowest  pupil  finished  in  265  days,  exceed- 
ing the  standard  of  185  days  by  80  days,  a  retardation  of  four  months. 
There  are  11.  pupils  who  exceed  the  standard  maximum  assumed  for  the 
slowest. 

The  third  series  represents  pupils  of  whom  we  have  records  for  three 
half-grades  (1|  years).  The  fastest  completed  these  three  half-grades  in 
81  days  and  the  slowest  in  312  days.  The  standard  maximum  is  285  days. 
The  average  of  the  fastest  was  41  days  per  half-grade  (81 -f- 2),  and  the 
average  rate  of  the  slowest  was  104  days.  The  fastest  therefore  finished 
with  a  saving  of  220  days  (285  —  65),  and  the  slowest  wdth  a  retardation 
of  27  days  (312  —  285)  ;  or  in  terms  of  average,  the  fastest  saved,  on  the 
average,  54  days  (95  —  41),  per  half- grade,  and  the  slowest  lost  9  days 
per  half-grade  (104  —  95).     The  other  series  may  be  similarly  interpreted. 

(24) 


Table  showing  the  number  of  hours  used  by  different  pupils  m  completing: 
one  to  six  half-grades  (upper  line),  and  the  average  time  of  each  (lower 
line) .  The  standards  are  shown  for  each ;  excessively  slow  records  are 
printed  in  black  type. 

PRIMARY  READING. 

Number  of  days  used  in  completing  one  half-grade  (standard  maxi- 
mum, 95  days)-43,  43,  58,  67,  67,  67,  68,  72,  76,  77,  81,  93,  98,  111,  HI. 
169,  178,  182. 

Xumber  of  days  used  in  completing  two  half-grades  (standard  maxi- 
mum, 180  days).     Average  number  of  days^per  half-grade  (95  days)  : 

65      70      71,     75,     95,     96,     96,  100,  101,  102,  103,  106,  112,  114,  115, 

33,     35',     36,     38,     48,     48,     48,     50,     51,     51,     52,     53,     06,     o/,     d8, 
115    115    120,  121,  122,  126,  127,  130,  131,  134,  137,  139,  140,  144,  145, 

58!     58^     60,     61,     61,     63,     64,     65,     66,     67,     69,     70,     70,     72.     73. 
145    150,  153.  157,  160,  162,  162,  164,  166,  172,  182,  186,  196,  221,  232, 

73',     75.     77,     79.     80,     81,     81,     82,     83,     86,     91,     93,     98,  111,  116, 

233,  243,  249,  249,  250,  260,  262,  265. 
117,  122,  125,  125,  125,  125,  131,  133. 

Xumber  of  days  used  in  completing  three  half-grades  (standard  maxi- 
mum, 285  days).  "  Average  number  of  days  per  half-grade  (95  days^  : 

81,     87,  no,  113,  132,  138,  159,  164,  165,  165,  188,  189,  195,  200,  201, 
27.     29.     37,     38,     44,     46,     53,     55,     55,     55,     63,     63,     65,     67,     6t, 

'■>0''>    204    --^06    208,  222,  223,  243,  259,  264,  274,  274,  276,  312. 
6S.     68.     69,     70.     74,     75,     81,     87,     88,     92,     92,     92,  104. 

Xumber  of  days  used  in  completing  four  half-grades  (standard  maxi- 
mum. 380  days).     Average  (95  days)  : 

107,  113,  154,  156,  162,  163,  167,  169,  178,  179,  214,  222, 
27,     29,     39,     39,     41,     41,     42,     43,     45,     45,     54,     56, 

224,  240,  243,  246,  254,  255,  263,  270,  278,  311,  331,  339. 
56,     60,     61,     62,     64,     65,     6^5,     68,     70,     78,     83,     85. 

Xumber  of  days  used  in  completing  five  half-grades  (standard  maxi- 
mum, 475  days).  Average  number  of  days  per  half-grade  (maximum,  95 
days) : 

122,  207,  254,  255,  267,  271,  272,  279,  301,  302,  316,  333,  355. 
25,     42,     51,     51,     54,     do,     55,     56,     61,     61,     64,     67.     71. 


(2.5) 


Xnmber  of  daj's  used  in  completing  six  half-grades  (standard  maxi- 
mum, 570  days).  Average  number  of  days  per  half-grade  (maximum.  95 
days)  : 

239,  256,  260,  267,  270,  305,  307,  366. 
40,     43,     44,     45,     45,     51,     52,     61. 

Number  of  days  used  in  completing  seven  half-grades  (standard  maxi- 
mum, 665  days).  Average  number  of  days  per  half-grade  (maximum,  95 
days) : 

210,  309,  311. 
30,     45,     45. 


ARITHMETIC. 

Number  of  hours  used  in  completing  one  half-grade  (standard  maxi- 
mum, 95  hours)— 15,  20,  21,  23,  28,  29,  30,  31,  31,  33,  34,  36,  41,  42,  43,  43, 
43,  44,  46,  46,  47,  50,  51,  53,  55,  56,  59,  59,  59,  62,  66,  67,  69,  70,  72.  74.  74, 
79,  82,  84,  92,  92,  96,  56,  99,  100,  117,  122.     Total  pupils— 48. 

Number  of  hours  used  in  completing  two  half-grades  (standard  maxi- 
mum, 190  hours).  Average  number  of  hours  per  half-grade  (maximum, 
95  hours)  : 

48,     50,     50,     57,     61,     65,     67,     77,     80,     89,     90,     93. 

24,     25,     25,     29,     31,     33,     34,     39,     40,     45,     45,     47, 

99,  101,  104,  107,  109,  113,  114,  119,  120,  122,  123,  124, 
50,     51,     52,     54,     55,     57,     57,     60,     60,     61,     62,     62, 

129,  132,  133,  133,  133,  143,  144,  148,  148,  149,  153,  156, 
65,     61,     67,     67,     67,     72,     72,     74,     74,     75,     77,     78, 

157,  166,  167,  172,  179,  179,  182,  189,  193,  200. 
79,     83,     84,     86,     90,     90,     91,     95,     97,  100. 

Number  of  hours  used  in  completing  three  half-grades  (standard  maxi- 
mum, 285  hours).  Average  number  of  hours  per  half-grade  (maximum, 
95  hours)  : 

81,  115,  116,  119,  126,  142,  144,  160,  163,  171,  173,  175. 
27,     39,     39,     40,     42,     48,     48,     54,     55,     57,     58,     59, 

178,  207,  207,  231,  266. 
60,     69,     69,     77,     89. 

Xuiii])er  of  hours  used  in  conipleting  four  half-grades  (standard  maxi- 
mum, 280  hours).  Average  number  of  hours  per  half-grade  (maximum, 
95  hours)  : 

145,  160,  168,  179,  180,  189,  202,  207,  209,  214,  217,  253,  268. 
37,     40,     42,     45,     45,     48,     51,     52,     53,     54,     55,     64,     67. 

(26) 


ARITHMETIC   (GRAMMAR  GRADES). 

Number  of  hours  used  in  completing:  one  half-y:rade  i  slaudard  maxi- 
mum, 95  hours)— 19,  24,  27,  31,  31,  33,  35,  37,  38,  39,  39,  39.  41.  44.  44,  45, 
46,  46,  49,  50,  51,  51,  51,  53,  54,  55,  56,  57,  58,  59,  60,  61,  62,  02.  63.  63.  65. 
66,  6S.  70,  72,  73,  74,  75,  76,  80,  81,  81,  83,  85,  87,  87.  103,  108,  120,  128. 

Number  of  hours  used  in  completing  two  lialf-grades  (standai-d  maxi- 
mum, 190  hours).  Average  number  of  hours  per  half-grade  (maximum. 
95  hours)  :, 

63,     68,     75,     76,     83,     89,     90,     96,     99,  113,  113,  120.  122.  123,  124. 
32,     34,     38,     38,    42,     45,     45,     48,     50,     57,     57,     60,     61,     62,     62, 

127,  130,  131,  131,  134,  137,  138,  140,  142,  143,  143,  146,  148,  150,  152, 
.  64,     65,     66,     66,     67,     69,     69,     70,     71,     72,     72,     73,     74.     75,     76, 

153,  154,  155,  156,  157,  158,  159,  168,  168,  169,  170,  173,  174.  175,  175, 

77,     77,     78,     78,     79,     79,     80,     84,     84,     85.     85.     87.     87.     88,     88, 

178,  179,  182,  185,  188,  198  201,  213,  221,  233,  255. 
89,     90,     91,     93,     94,     94,  101,  107,  111,  117,  128. 

Number  of  hours  nsed  in  completing  three  half-grades  (standard  maxi- 
mum, 285  hours).  Average  number  of  hours  per  half-grade  (maximum, 
95  hours)  : 

108,  108,  110,  122,  123,  130,  142,  143,  144,  148,  150,  159,  161,  164,  166, 
36,     36,     37,     41,     41,     47,     48,     48,     48,     50,     50,     53,     54.     do,     56, 

167,  169,  170,  173,  178,  180,  191,  198,"  201,  202,  204,  206,  210,  211,  221, 
57,     57,     57,     58,     60,     60,     64,     66,     67,     68,     68,     69,     70,     71,     74, 

222,  225,  225,  227,  229,  230,  234,  236,  237,  238,  239,  239,  239,  241,  242, 

74,     75,     75,     77,     77,     77,     78,     79,     79,     80,     80,     80,     80.     81,     81, 

242,  243,  245,  246,  250,  251,  251,  253,  255,  255,  259,  259,  260,  262,  268, 

81,     81,     82,     82,     84,     84,     84,     85,     85,     85,     87,     87,     87,     S8,     90, 

274,  274,  286,  288,  292,  308,  319. 
92,     92,     96,     96,     98,  103,  107. 

Number  of  hours  used  in  completing  four  half-grades  (standard  maxi- 
mum, 380  hours).  Average  number  of  hours  per  half-grade  (maximum, 
95  hours)  : 

108,  131,  149,  167,  180,  191,  196,  200,  200,  202,  215,  215.  216.  222,  228, 
27,     33,     38,     42,     45,     48,     49,     50,     50,     51,     54,     54,     54.     36,     57, 

228,  234,  237,  237,  239.  239,  241,  242,  242,  243,  243,  248,  253,  255,  257, 
57,     59,     60,     60,     60,     60,     61,     61,     61,     61,     61,     62,     64,     64,     65, 

260,  260,  262,  264,  265,  266,  269,  272,  275,  276,  278,  278,  27J).  282,  283, 
65,     65,     66,     66,     67,     67,     68,     68,     69,     69,     70,     70,     70.     71.     71. 

(27) 


283,  286,  286,  287,  288,  293,  293,  293,  298,  303,  304.  309,  311,  313,  315, 
71.     72,     72.     72,     72,     74,     74,     74,     75,     76,     76,     78,     78,     79,     79, 

315,  319.  323.  326,  327,  328,  348,  363. 
79,     80,     81,     82,     82,     82,     87,     91. 

Number  of  hours  used  in  completing  five  half-grades  (standard  maxi- 
mum, 475  hours).  Average  number  of  hours  per  half-grade  (maximum, 
95  hours)  : 

215,  216,  223,  232,  232,  246,  253,  262,  265,  269, 
43,     44,     45,     47,     47,     50,     51,     53,     53,     54, 

271,  281,  288,  294,  299,  305,  319,  324,  330. 
55,     57,     58,     60,     60,     61,     64,     65,     66. 

Number  of  hours  used  in  completing  six  half-grades  (standard  maxi- 
mum, 570  hours).  Average  number  of  hours  per  half-grade  (maximum, 
95  hours)  : 

241,  289,  315,  323. 
41.     50,     53,     54. 


GRAMMAR. 

The  amount  of  time  allowed  for  the  study  of  grammar  is  one-half  hour 
or  47^  hours  per  half-grade.  The  maximum  standard  is  therefore  47^ 
hours  instead  of  95. 

Number  of  hours  used  in  completing  one  half-grade  (standard  maxi- 
mum, 47^  hours)— 7,  10,  11,  11,  11,  12,  12,  13,  13,  15,  16,  16,  16,  17,  18,  18, 
19,  19,  20,  20,  21,  21,  22,  22,  22,  23,  23,  25,  27,  29,  33,  33,  33,  34,  34,  36, 
37,  38,  39,  40,  43,  44,  44,  48,  49,  69. 

Number  of  hours  used  in  completing  two  half -grades  (standard  nuxxi- 
mum,  90  hours).  Average  number  of  hours  per  half-grade  (maximum, 
47^  hours )  : 

10,     25,     26,     28,     30,     32,     33,     34,     41,     41,     43,     44,     47,     49,     50, 
5,     13,     13,     14,     15,     16,     17,     17,     21,     21,     22,     22,     24,     25,     25, 

50,     50,     50,     52,     52,     53,     53,     53,     53,     54,     55,     55,     56,     56,     57, 

25,     25,     25,     26,     26,     27,     27,     27,     27,     27,     28,     28,     28,     28,     29, 

58,     58,     58,     60,     60,     61,     61,     62,     62,     63,     63,     65,     65,     65,     71, 
29,     29,     29,     30,     30,     31,     31,     31,     31,     32,     32,     33,     33,     33,     36, 

74,     74,     81,     82,     84,     97,  100,  102,  105,  111. 
37,     37,     41,     41,     42,     49,     50,     51,     53,     56. 


(28) 


Number  of  hours 
mum,  142^  hours). 
47^  hours)  : 


29, 

32, 

35, 

46, 

10, 

11, 

12, 

16, 

70, 

70, 

71, 

72, 

24, 

24, 

24, 

24, 

87, 

87, 

88, 

89, 

29, 

29, 

30, 

30, 

100, 

100, 

101, 

101, 

34, 

34, 

34, 

34, 

121, 

121, 

130, 

132, 

41, 

41, 

44, 

44, 

used  in  eompletinc:  three  half-grades  (standard  maxi- 
Average  number  of  hours  per  half -grade  (maximum, 

46,     51,     52,     54,     54,     56,     60,     60,     60,     65,     67, 
16,     17,     18,     18,     18,     19,     20,     20,     20,     22,     23, 

73,     76,     77,     78,     80,     80,     81,     83,     84,     84,     85, 
25,     26,     26,     26,     27,     27,     27,     28,     28,     28,     29, 

90,     91,     91,     92,     92,     93,     93,     94,     98,     98,     99, 
30,     31,     31,     31,     31,     31,     31,     32,     33,     33,     33, 

103,  108,  108,  108,  109,  109,  111,  112,  115,  116,  117, 
35,     36,     36,     36,     37,     37,     37,     38,     39,     39,     39, 

134,  134,  135,  144. 
45,     45,     45,     48. 


Number  of  hours  used  in  completing  four  half-grades  (standard  maxi- 
mum, 190  hours.  Average  number  of  hours  per  half-grade  (maximum, 
47^  hours) : 

46,    68,    71,    73,    77,    77,    80,    83,    90,    91,    92,    97,    97,  101,  103,  105, 
12,    17,    18,    19,    20,    20,    20,    21,    23,    23,    23,    25,    25,    26,    26,    27, 

106,  106,  108,  110,  110,  111,  117,  118,  118,  119,  120,  121,  122,  123,  123,  123, 
27,    27,    27,    28,    28,    28,    30,    30,    30,    30,    30,    31,    31,    31,    31.    31, 

126,  127,  127,  131,  134,  135,  138,  138,  140,  143,  143,  144,  144,  147,  158. 
32,    32,    32,    33,    34,    34,    35,    35,    35,    36,    36,    36,    36,    37,    40. 

Number  of  hours  used  in  completing  five  half-grades  (standard  maxi- 
mum, 237^  hours).  Average  number  of  hours  per  half-grade  (maximum, 
471  hours)  : 

68,     82,     85,     93,     94,     97,  102,  102,  103,  105,  105,  106,  110,  111,  116, 
14,     17,     17,     19,     19,     20,     21,     21,     21,     21,     21.     22,     22,     23,     24, 

116,  116,  118,  118,  119,  121,  122,  128,  128,  132,  135,  140,  142,  144,  146, 
24,     24,     24,     24,     24,     25,     25,     26,     26,     27,     27,     28,     29,     29,     30, 

148,  161,  169. 
30,     33,     34. 

Number  of  hours  used  in  completing  six  half-grades  (standard  maxi- 
mum, 285  hours).  Average  number  of  hours  per  half-grade  (maximum, 
47^  hours)  : 

76,     96,  107,  117,  119,  123,  134,  146. 

13,     16,     18,     20,     20,     21,     23,     25. 


5—19474 


(29) 


Number  of  hours  used  in  completing  seven  half-grades  (standard  maxi- 
mum, 285  hours).  Average  number  of  hours  per  half -grade  (maximum, 
47-J  hours)  : 

291,  136,  291. 
42.     20,     42. 


HISTORY. 

The  daily  allowance  of  time  is  one-half  hour  or  47^  hours  per  half- 
grade,  as  in  grammar. 

Number  of  hours  used  in  completing  one  half-grade  (standard  maxi- 
mum, 47i  hours)— 15,  16,  19,  19.  24,  25.  26,  27,  27,  28,  29,  31,  32,  32,  33, 
34,  38,  38,  41,  42,  44,  46,  48,  49,  55,  55,  60,  66,  92.     Total  pupils— 29. 

Number  of  hours  used  in  completing  two  half-grades  (standard  maxi- 
mum, 95  hours).  Average  number  of  hours  per  half-grade  (maximum, 
47|  hours)  : 

18,     24,     31,     33,     35,     35,     37,     38,     39,     39,     39,     41,     42,     43,     46, 
9,     12,     16,     17,     18,     18,     19,     19,     20,     20,     20,     21,     21,     22,     23, 

49,     49,     49,     52,     53,     55,     55,     60,     62,     63,     64,     65,     65,     66,     66, 
25,     25,     25,     26,     27,     28,     28,     30,     31,     32,     32,     33,     33,     33,     33, 

67,     68,     69,     70,     70,     71,     72,     73,     74,     74,     75,     78,     81,     81,     82, 
34,     34,     35,     35,     35,     36,     36,     37,     37,     37,     38,     39,     41,     41,     41, 

82,     86,     89,     91,     92,     94.     99,  100,  101,  102,  103,  105,  107,  115,  115, 
41,     43,     45,     46,     46,     47.     50,     50,     51,     51,     52,     53,     54,     58,     58, 

121,  123,  123,  124,  126,  128,  130,  136,  140,  146,  158. 
61,     62,     62,     62,     63,     64,     65,     68,     70,     73,     79. 


Number  of  hour 
mum,  142^  hours). 
47|  hours)  : 

40,  66,     71 
14,     22,     24 

87,     89,     90 
29,     30,     30 

99,  100,  101 
33,     34,     34 

122,  122,  123 

41,  41,     41 

134,  136,  136 
45,     46,     46 

145,  147,  148 
49,     49,     50 


s  used  in  completing  three  half-grades  (standard  maxi- 
Average  number  of  hours  per  half-grade  (maxinuim. 


,     71, 

72, 

,     24, 

24, 

,     90, 

91, 

,     30, 

31, 

,  101, 

104, 

^     34, 

35, 

,  123, 

123, 

,     41, 

41, 

i,  136, 

136, 

;,   46, 

46, 

i,  150, 

151, 

).     50, 

51, 

72, 

73, 

78, 

79, 

80, 

80, 

82, 

83, 

84, 

86, 

24, 

25, 

26, 

27, 

27, 

27, 

28, 

28, 

28, 

29, 

92, 

92, 

93, 

93, 

95, 

96, 

97, 

97, 

98, 

98, 

31, 

31, 

31, 

31, 

32, 

32, 

33, 

33, 

33, 

33, 

107, 

108, 

108, 

109, 

114, 

115, 

115, 

117, 

119, 

120, 

36, 

36, 

36, 

37, 

38, 

39, 

39, 

39, 

40, 

40, 

125, 

125, 

127, 

128, 

128, 

131, 

131, 

132, 

132, 

134, 

42, 

42, 

43, 

43, 

43, 

44, 

44, 

44, 

44, 

45, 

137, 

137, 

138, 

139, 

139, 

139, 

140, 

140, 

143, 

144, 

46, 

46, 

46, 

47, 

47, 

47, 

47, 

47, 

48, 

48, 

156, 

158, 

159, 

160, 

162, 

165, 

167, 

167, 

169, 

178. 

52, 

53, 

53, 
(30) 

54, 

54, 

55, 

56, 

56, 

57, 

60. 

Number  of  hours  used  in  c-ompletiug  four  half-grades  (standard  niaxi- 
niuni,  190  hours).  Average  number  of  hours  per  half-grade  (maxinuim. 
47^  hours)  : 

92,     95,     99,  100,  100,  101,  102,  102,  105,  106,  107,  111,  112,  115,  116, 
23,     24,     25,     25,     25,     26,     26,     26,     27,     27,     27,     28,     28,     29,     29, 

116,  119,  119,  120,  120,  124,  126,  126,  132,  133,  134,  137,  138,  140,  141, 
29,     30,     30,     30,     30,     31,     32,     32,     33,     34,     34,     35,     35,     35,     36, 

144,  145,  148,  148,  152,  153,  159,  159,  160,  160,  161,  167,  168,  168,  172, 
36,     37.     37,     37,     38,     39,     40,     40,     40,     40,     41,     42,     42,     42,     43^ 

175,  176,  180,  182,  183. 
44,     44,     45,     46,     46. 

Number  of  hours  used  in  completing  five  half-grades  (standard  maxi- 
mum, 237^  hours).  Average  number  of  hours  per  half-grade  (maximum, 
47 i  hours)  : 

93,     99,  107,  109,  112,  114,  117,  118,  118,  124,  125,  130,  13'^ 
19,     20,     22,     22,     23,     23,     24,     24,     24,     25,     25.     26.     27,' 

134,  134,  136,  143,  145,  146,  151,  157,  161,  173,  184    186    "^05 
27,     27,     28,     29,     29,     30,     31,     32,     33.     35,     37.     38,     41. 

Number  of  hours  used  in  completing  six  half-grades  (standard  maxi- 
mum, 285  hours).  Average  number  of  hours  per  half -grade  (nuiximum. 
47^  hours) : 

131,  163. 
22,     28. 

Number  of  hours  used  in  completing  seven  half-grades  (standard  maxi- 
mum, 332^  hours).  Average  number  of  hours  per  half-grade  (maximum, 
47|  hours)  : 

108,  132. 
16,     19. 


(31) 


,  FEATURES  TO  BE  NOTED. 

1.  That  with  longer  periods  of  time,  the  average  rapid  record  grows 
slightly  slower,  and  the  average  slow  record  grows  very  much  faster. 

This  is  unexpected  and  seems  singular.  With  our  general  theory  of 
types  of  "slow"  and  "fast"  pupils,  we  should  expect  the  fast  to  go  faster 
and  the  slow  at  least  to  remain  slow.  But  by  examining  the  general  record 
sheet,  it  appears  that  practically  all  pupils  tend  to  vary  widely  in  their 
own  rates. 

2.  That  while  in  the  records  for  one  half-grade,  two  half-grades  and 
three  half-grades,  there  are  always  some  averages  which  exceed  95  hours, 
there  are  no  averages  exceeding  95  hours  among  the  pupils  who  have  com- 
pleted four,  five  or  more  half-grades.  This  might  be  interpreted  upon  the 
ground  that  since  our  plan  has  only  been  in  operation  for  two  years,  or  less, 
the  pupils  who  have  completed  four  or  more  half-grades  represent  the 
"fast"  tj^pe  and  that  they  have  not  made  any  slow  records.  To  a  certain 
extent,  this  explanation  is  probably  valid,  but  as  will  be  shown  in  a  subse- 
quent paragraph,  the  pupils  who  have  completed  four  or  more  half-grades 
nevertheless  are  burdened  with  a  considerable  percentage  of  excessively 
slow  records;  the  slow  rates  have  been  averag?d  out. 

Are  There  Slow  and  Fast  Types?  It  is  clear  that  if  the  pupils  who  are 
exceptionally  fa.st  in  the  first  half-grade  should  maintain  these  same  rates 
continuously,  they  would  complete  the  eight  grades  of  this  subject  in  short 
order.  They  would,  therefore,  constitute  a  "rapid"  type.  Similarly,  if 
the  pupils  who  are  excessively  slow  should  continue,  through  each  successive 
grade,  to  move  at  the  same  retarded  rate,  they  would  slip  further  and 
further  behind  and  require  years  to  complete  the  eight  grades.  They  would 
eon.stitute  a  "slow"  type.  Seemingly  we  might  also  establish  a  "medium" 
type.  These  are  terms  of  popular  pedagogic  presumption,  and  when  we 
commenced  the  work  of  individual  instruction,  we  confidently  anticipated 
the  records  to  run  upon  this  plan.  But  the  figures  have  not  run  upon  this 
plan.  We  would  have  a  difficult  task  to  put  a  finger  definitely  upon  any 
considerable  number  of  pupils  who,  judged  by  their  records,  could  be 
adjudged  "rapid,"  "medium,"  or  "slow."  We  have  found  few  pupils 
Avho  have  made  progress  through  successive  grades  at  a  continuously  rapid, 
continuously  medium,  and  fewer  at  a  continuously  slow  rate.  The  rule  is 
that  of  constant  variation  in  rate,  even  hy  the  same  pupil.  For  illustration, 
we  may  take  pupils  in  grammar  grade  arithmetic  who  have  completed  at 
least  three  successive  half-grades.  We  have  154  such  records,  some  for 
three  half -grades,  some  for  four  half -grades,  some  for  five  and  six.  Let  us 
designate  as  exceedingly  rapid  any  rate  which  is  less  than  half  the  standard 
minimum  (95  hours)  or  47^  hours;  as  "medium,"  any  rate  which  falls 
between  474  and  95  hours;  and  as  excessively  "slow"  any  record  which 
exceeds  95  hours.  Of  these  155  pupils,  there  are  16  whose  average  rate  is 
rapid,  and  95  whose  record  contains  one  or  more  rapid  rates  for  a  half- 
grade,  but  only  3  are  continuously  rapid.     There  are  132  whose  average  is 

(32) 


medium,  and  152  whose  records  contain  one  or  more  medium  half-grade 
rates,  but  only  38  which  are  continuously  medium.  There  are  45  whose 
records  contain  one  or  two  slow  half-grade  rates,  but  only  6  average  slow 
and  none  are  continuously  slow,  even  for  three  half-srades.  There  are  24  of 
the  155  whose  records  contain  mixtures  of  all  three  types. 

Of  course,  we  know  there  are  pupils  inherently  deficient— there  are 
idiots,  imbeciles,  morons,  and,  in  all  probability,  backward  pupils  among  the 
normal.  Also  we  do  know  there  are  prodigies.  But  the  evidence  of  our 
experience  simply  minimizes  the  undue  emphasis  which  has  been  placed 
upon  the  theory  of  slow  and  fast  "types"  for  practical  purposes.  The 
factor  of  inherent  qualities  is  evidently  not  so  dominant  and  all-determining 
in  the  regular  school  subjects  as  we  have  assumed.  Doubtless,  in  subjects 
of  marked  congenital  origin  these  types  do  exist.  These  up-and-down 
variations,  in  the  same  pupil,  can  not  be  due  as  the  rule,  to  inherent  rapidity 
or  slo^^•ness,  but  far  more  to  some  temporary  and  external  conditions. 
Progress  in  arithmetic,  more  than  any  other  school  subject,  is  popularly 
supposed  to  be  controlled  by  hereditary  predisposition.  What  our  records 
would  indicate  is  that  this  factor  has  been  greatly  overestimated,  that  the 
differences  among  pupils,  in  native  arithmetical  ability,  are  much  less  than 
popular  pedagogy  has  taught  and  that  as  a  rule  the  variations  are  due  to 
simpler  external  conditions. 

What  Becomes  of  Pupils  Who,  for  a  Half  Grade,  Exceed  the 
Maximum  Standard  in  a  Given  Subject?  At  least,  in  an  individual  sj's- 
tcm.  there  need  be  no  perpetration  of  the  preposterous  absurdity  of  sending 
the  pupil  back  over  the  grade  to  do  completely  over  again  not  only  the 
subject  in  which  he  is  partially  deficient,  but  also  those  in  which  he  is  not 
at  all  deficient.  So  far  as  the  pupil  has  gone,  under  the  individual  plan,  he 
is  as  thorough  as  the  most  rapid.  He  is  simply  behind.  He  may  continue 
to  lag  behind,  or,  possibly,  he  may  redouble  his  efforts  and  catch  up.  Yet. 
if,  as  popular  pedagogy  assumes,  pupils  who  make  slow  progress  for  a  half- 
grade  belong  to  a  "slow"  type,  by  mental  inheritance,  they  will  continue  to 
fall  even  further  behind.  But  this  condition,  in  our  limited  experience, 
does  not  appear  to  be  the  rule,  nor  even  a  noticeable  tendency. 

To  make  clear  this  situation,  there  are  grouped  below  the  successive  rates 
of  all  pupils  who  have  completed  at  least  three  half-grades  of  grammar 
grade  arithmetic  and  who  have  made  one  or  more  records  exceeding  95  hours 
for  a  half-grade.  The  total  number  of  hours  and  the  average  rate  are 
also  given. 

Explanation  of  Tables.  Each  horizontal  line  is  the  record  of  a  single 
pupil.  The  first  used  43  hours  in  his  first  half-grade,  dropped  to  110  hours 
(excessively  slow)  in  his  second  half-grade,  and  returned  to  51  hours  in  his 
third  half-grade.     His  total  Avas  204  hours  or  an  average  of  6S  hours — 27 


(33) 


hours  less  than  the  standard  95  hours,  though  he  was  excessively  slow  in  one 
half -grade. 


Number  of  hours  for  three 
half-grades 

=  o 
2  3 

Average  i 
per  half - 

Number  of  hours  for  four 
half-grades 

c 

H 

=r3 

c  2 

^ro 

One 

Two 

Three 

?3 
1    c 
1    ^ 

One 

Two 

Three 

Four 

"  i. 

in  p 

f  a 

c 

43 

110 

51 

204 

68 

23 

49 

132 

33 

237 

60 

22 

72 

131 

225 

75 

31 

100 

54 

54 

239 

60 

84 

99 

42 

225 

75 

114 

41 

42 

67 

267 

66 

115 

65 

50 

230 

77 

33 

95 

96 

42 

266 

67 

45 

98 

91 

234 

78 

60 

30 

74 

105          269 

68 

96 

86 

57 

239 

80 

102 

76 

69 

35     i       282 

71 

44 

87 

112 

243 

81 

108 

67 

35 

69    !       279 

70 

87 

45 

110 

242 

81 

58 

77 

113 

45 

293 

74 

81 

116 

44 

241 

81 

53 

144 

66 

30 

293 

74 

63 

85 

103 

251 

84 

45 

103 

64 

81 

293 

74 

46 

129 

75 

250 

84 

122 

91 

34 

62 

309 

78 

65 

89 

97 

251 

84 

128 

62 

76 

49 

315 

79 

63 

53 

137 

253 

85 

81 

96 

78 

72 

327 

82 

125 

78 

52 

255 

85 

93 

151 

58 

26 

328 

82 

55 

50 

150 

255 

85 

82 

83 

121 

62 

348 

87 

55 

111 

94 

260 

87 

79 

146 

38 

100 

363 

91 

49 

104 
115 

109 

81 

262 
274 

88 
92 

78 

132 

89 

53 

53 

75 

110 

274 

288 
286 
292 

92 
96 
96 
98 

127 

80 

108 
131 
106 

Number  of  hours  for  five  or  six 
half-grades 

o  o 

ll 

3-3 

76 

1 

Ptrs 

81 

100 

87 

268 

98 

One 

Two 

Three 

Four 

Five 

Six 

i  §■ 

'^E 

118 

76 
93 

114 
151 

308 
319 

103 
107 

1    '~i 

C." 

75 

38 
76 

98 

46 

82 

99 

34 
67 

19 
36 

271 
324 

55 

65 

76 

77 

121 

37 

19 

330 

66 

53 

24 

77 

118 

33 

18 

323 

54 

Features  to  Be  Noted.  1.  That  no  more  than  two  excessively  slow 
rates  are  contained  in  any  one  pnpil's  record.  (This  is  thus  far  true  of 
every  pupil's  record  in  every  subject.) 

2.  That  no  excessive  average  is  found  in  any  series  except  those  of  two 
and  three  half-grades.  In  all  records  continuous  for  four  or  more  half- 
grades,  all  rates  in  excess  of  95  hours  as  an  average  are  elided  by  the  averag- 
ing process.  (This  is  true  without  exception  so  far  for  every  pupil  in  every 
subject.)  In  other  words,  we  have  no  pupil  who,  having  completed  at  least 
four  half-grades,  is  behind  his  grade  in  any  subject. 

3.  That  the  154  pupils  who  have  completed  three  or  more  half-grades  do 
not  constitute  an  exceptional  type,  since  45  of  them  (between  one-fourth  and 
one-third)  have  made  at  least  one  excessively  slow  record. 

4.  That  of  the  45  who  make  records  containing  at  least  one  excessive  rate, 
all  except  6  slow  records  are  averaged  out  and  no  pupil  exceeds  an  average 
of  103  days. 

5.  That  the  records  of  these  154  pupils  contain  47  slow  rates,  75  medium 
rates  and  32  fast  rates.  This  condition  otfers  no  indication  of  an  inherently 
"slow"  type. 

(34) 


So,  in  conclusion,  we  may  say  that  the  rates  of  excessive  slowness,  shown 
in  all  the  half-grade  records  are,  as  a  rule,  sporadic,  due  to  transient  and 
removable  causes.  There  will  be  very  few  pupils,  if  any,  who  are  pro- 
ceeding at  a  rate  whieii  will  cai-ry  them  through  the  eight  grades  of  the 
elementary  school  in  excess  of  seven  years  and  the  bulk  are  proceeding  at  a 
rate  to  finish  in  six  years  and  less.  There  are  practically  no  pcrmaneniUj 
slow  pupils  (though  a  large  percentage  of  them  at  one  time  or  another 
exceed  the  maxinnim  standard  of  95  days  per  half-grade),  because  faster 
rates  average  out  the.se  excessive  rates. 


(35) 


WHY  AND  HOW  INDIVIDUAL  INSTRUCTION  CAN  BE  CHEAPER 
THAN  CLASS  INSTRUCTION. 

Nine  persons  out  of  ten,  when  confronted  by  the  proposal  of  individual 
instruction,  immediately  offer  the  off-hand  conclusion  that  it  is  a  good  idea 
theoretically — in  fact  the  only  way,  ideally — but,  of  course,  it  could  never 
be  put  into  practice  on  account  of  the  expense!  "How  can  you  possibly 
apply  individual  instruction  to  classes  of  fifty  pupils  with  one  teacher?" 
is  asked. 

This  question  is  offered  as  a  clincher.  It  looks  like  a  clincher  and  the 
final  end  of  argument.  Apparently  more  teachers  would  be  required  and 
more  teachers  would  mean  more  dollars. 

There  is,  however,  a  fatal  weakness  concealed  in  this  question.  Its 
axiomatic  assumption  that  there  must  be  fifty  pupils  in  a  class  in  order  that 
the  expense  of  schooling  shall  not  be  increased  will  bear  scrutiny.  Para- 
doxical as  it  may  seem,  we  may  very  materially  reduce  the  number  of  pupils 
per  teacher,  and  yet  actually  decrease  the  cost  of  schooling.  Our  hasty  con- 
clusionists  have  entirely  overlooked  the  fact  that  the  largest  item  of  school 
expense — and  the  one  which  makes  fifty  pupils  to  a  teacher  necessary  under 
class  instruction — is  the  expense  of  needless  waste. 

Some  of  these  fifty  pupils  are  repeaters ;  if  we  remove  the  cause  of 
repeating  grades,  they  will  not  be  in  the  class — they  will  be  further  along 
and  perhaps  be  graduated  from  the  school.  Another  part — and  almost  half 
of  them — also  would  not  be  in  the  class  were  it  not  for  the  fact  that  they 
are  being  held  back,  by  the  lockstep  system  ;  they  also  would  be  further  along 
and  perhaps  graduated.  In  short,  the  condition  of  fifty  pupils  to  a  teacher 
is  not  a  necessity,  but  a  disease  created  hy  the  class  system  itself.  Any 
remedy  which  enables  pupils  to  make  progress  faster,  reduces  automatically 
the  number  of  pupils  assigned,  to  each  teacher.  Let  us  then  first  consider 
these  wastes  specifically. 

I.  The  Waste  of  Retardation.  It  costs  as  much  to  carry  a  pupil 
through  a  grade  for  the  second  time  as  for  the  first  time.  The  administra- 
tors of  the  school  system  seem  never  to  have  been  acutely  conscious,  nor  even 
conscious  at  all,  of  the  enormous  expense  to  the  school  system  incurred  by 
the  requirement  that  pupils  who  fail  to  keep  the  lockstep  stride  shall  repeat 
the  grade.  There  is  a  peculiarly  exasperating  feature  of  this  waste.  It 
makes  no  difference  whether  the  pupil  has  learned  nothing  during  the  entire 
grade  or  term  or  is  merely  behind  to  the  extent  that  he  might  make  up  the 
deficiency  in  a  few  weeks'  work.  In  either  case  he  must  repeat  the  entire 
year  or  term's  work  at  extra  expense  to  the  school  treasury.  The  situation 
is  especially  exasperating  when  the  pupil  is  only  partially  deficient  in  one 
subject  and  must  now  be  given  an  extra  year  or  term's  instruction  in  the 
five  or  six  other  subjects  in  which  he  is  entirely  proficient. 

"Well,"  says  the  schoolmaster,  helplessly,  "Avhat  can  we  do  about  it?" 
There  is  nothing,  under  the  class  system,  which  can  be  done  about  it  except 
to  do  what  is  being  done — the  pupil  must  pay  the  penalty  in  time,  ambition 
and  energy ;  and  the  school  treasury  must  foot  the  cost  in  money.     There  are 

(36) 


many  cities  in  the  United  States  in  which  40  to  50  per  cent  of  the  pupils 
are  repeating  grades.  There  are  few  cities  in  which  the  percentage  of 
repeaters  is  less^than  25.  .Alany  of  these  repeaters  are  repeating  two,  three, 
and  even  more  years. 

The  Russell  Sage  Foundation  has  sliown  that  in  twenty-nine  scattered 
cities  of  the  United  States,  representing  2U6.495  pupils,  repetition  of  grades 
requires  98,000  extra  years  of  school  instruction  and  its  cost!  At  the 
average  annual  cost  of  $29.27  for  schooling  of  each  pupil,  it  will  cost  these 
twenty-nine  cities  at  least  the  tidy  sum  of  $2,868,400.* 

The  annual  loss,  due  to  repetition  of  grades,  is  a  matter  upon  which  there 
is  yet  little  relialile  data.  In  some  cities,  it  would  .seem  that  the  annual 
retardation  amounts  to  as  many  as  20  out  of  every  100  pupils.  In  others, 
the  percentage  appears  low,  but  a  low  percentage  does  not  mean  consequent 
higher  efficiency.  In  some  cities,  the  order  has  gone  forth  to  promote  pupils 
regardless  of  whether  or  not  they  have  reached  the  standard.  This  device 
:^?s  inefficiency  but  does  not  remove  it.  In  fact,  we  may  assume  that 
the  cit^So'hich  have  the  higher  rate  of  retardation  are  likely  to  be  the  more 
eonscientioK  and  therefore  in  all  probability  also  the  more  efficient. 

Under  ai^  individual  plan  there  need  be  no  repeaters.  The  rate  of 
progress  of  some  pupils  will  be  slower  than  that  of  others,  but  such 
absurdities  as  that  of  requiring  a  pupil,  at  public  expense,  to  repeat  five 
subjects  because  he  is  behind  in  one,  or  to  do  over  in  one  subject  not  only 
what  he  has  failed  to  learn  but  also  that  which  he  has  learned,  are  elim- 
inated. If  the  grade  standards  are  set  at  what  the  slowest  pupil  can 
accomplish  there  can  not  be  even  laggards.  As  our  figures  have  shown,  the 
rate  of  the  slowest  pupil  (not  subnormal)  under  individual  instruction,  is 
faster  than  the  rate  of  the  class  system. 

II.  The  Waste  of  Unused  Acceleration.  The  pupil  who  completes  in 
20  days  an  amount  of  work  for  which  the  grade  standard  permits  him  95 
days,  advances  himself  75  daj'S.  He  also  saves  to  the  school  system  the  cost 
of  instructing  him  for  75  days.  As  we  see,  in  the  records  of  variation,  all 
pupils  with  rates  less  than  95  days,  advance  themselves,  and  save  to  the 
school  treasury  the  cost  of  instructing  them  the  full  95  days  each.  When 
we  add  the  hours  of  instruction  each  pupil  thus  saves  to  the  school  system, 
by  acceleration,  we  have  saved  a  huge  percentage  of  the  school  time. 

For  illustration,  let  us  take  the  records  of  teaching  76  pupils  addition  of 
integers  (p.  39).  By  adding  the  time  each  used  in  completing  this  work, 
we  find  the  sum  to  be  3,658  hours.  But  each  could  have  used  95  hours  and 
yet  not  have  fallen  behind  the  standard  grading;  for  all  the  76  pupils  the 
total  time  permissible  would  have  been  7,220  hours  (95  X  ''^G).  The  differ- 
ence between  the  actual  time  is  therefore  3,562  hours  (7,220  —  3,658).  In 
other  words,  the  combined  accelerated  rates  of  the  76  pupils  have  saved  to 
the  school  treasury  the  cost  of  imtruciion  of  49  per  cent  of  the  standard 
allowance. 


*Mr.  Ayers  of  the  Russell  Sage  Foundation  has  complicated  his  estimates  by  counting 
acceleration  (by  "skipping  grades")  as  an  asset.  It  is  a  questionable  asset  in  any  sense. 
But  certainly  skipping  grades  should  not  be  figured  as  an  offset  to  retardation.  They  are 
two  separate  items,  in  no  causal  relation  to  each  other,  and  must  be  figured  separately. 

(37) 


43252 


This  saving'  by  acceleration  over  the  standard  rate  is  an  asset  wholly 
unknown,  and  impossible,  under  the  lockstep  method  (except  in  the  form  of 
the  questionable  feat  of  "skipping  grades").  The  class  system  entirely 
Avastes  this  huge  item  of  saving.  All  pupils  are  crowded  down  to  a  single 
rate — and  this  is  a  rate  xvliich  is  slower  than  that  of  the  slowest  pupil, 
inclividually  instructed. 

The  following  tables  undertake  to  illustrate  the  amount  of  this  saving. 
AVe  will  take  first  our  variation  records  in  reading. 

Reading. 


Number 

of 

pupils 

Actual 
number 
of  days 

standard 
number 
of  days 

Saving 
of  days 

Saving 
in  per 
cent 

Low  1:    Primer                              -    _    

45 
65 
60 
53 
65 
66 
59 
43 

3,327 
4,785 
4,434 
2,954 
3,350 
3,896 
3,380 
2,478 

4,275 
6,175 
5,700 
5,035 
6,175 
6,270 
5,605 
4,085 

948 
1,390 
1,266 
2,081 
2,825 
2,874 
2,225 
1,607 

22 

High  1:  First  Reader  — _    _  __ 

22 

Low  2:  Second  Reader.  _. .           -- 

22 

High  2:  First  half  Third  Reader  _  _    

41 

Low  3:  Last  half  Third  Reader 

45 

High  3:  First  half  Fourth  Reader.  . 

45 

Low  4:  Last  half  Fourth  Reader 

39 

High  4:  Fifth  Reader  completed                   

39 

Totals —       _-       

456 

28,104 

43,320 

15,216 

35 

Explanation  of  Table.  Following  the  first  horizontal  line,  the  figures 
state  that  there  are  records  of  45  pupils,  completing  the  low  first  grade.  By 
adding  the  actual  number  of  days  each  used  in  completing  this  half-grade, 
we  obtained  a  total  of  3,327  days  as  the  combined  time  used  by  the  45  pupils 
in  completing  this  half-grade ;  but,  each  pupil  could  have  used  95  days  and 
yet  not  have  fallen  below  the  standard  time;  so  we  may  multiply  95  days 
by  45  (number  of  pupils)  and  our  result,  4,275  days,  represents  the  time 
these  45  pupils  might  have  legitimately  used  without  retardation ;  the  saving 
is  obtained  by  subtracting  the  actual  time  used  from  the  standard  allow- 
ance; we  obtain  948  days  as  the  school  time  saved  by  the  surplus  of 
accelerated  rates  over  the  retarded  rates,  or  a  net  saving  of  22  per  cent 
(948^4,275). 

The  saving  of  the  time  allotted  to  giving  instruction  in  reading  has  a 
money  value  to  the  school  system.  This  saving  is  nearly  one-fourth  of  the 
cost  of  giving  reading  instruction  to  a  class  of  45  pupils  for  one-half  year — 
cost  of  teaching,  school  plant,  maintenance  and  administration. 

The  totals  show  that  456  pupils  actually  used  28,104  days  in  completing 
various  half-grades  of  reading  progress.  They  could  legitimately  have  used 
95  days  each,  or  (95  X  456)  43,320  days.  The  difference  between  the  actual 
time  used  and  the  allotted  time,  15,216  days,  represents  the  saving,  by 
acceleration,  of  these  456  pupils.  The  records  indicate  approximately  the 
large  saving  in  the  expense,  possible  under  an  individual  system,  but  wholly 
wasted  under  the  class  system.  So  far  as  our  records  go,  it  is  shown  that 
35  per  cent  of  the  school  time  and  energy  allotted  to  instruction  in  reading 
is  saved,  and  is  available  for  other  purposes.  The  next  tal)le  shows  the 
saving  in  integer  arithmetic  time. 


(38) 


Integer  Arithmetic. 


Nu.n'jer 

of 

pupils 


Addition  of  integers --.- 

Subtraction  and  multiplication  ot  integers.-. 

Short    division   ;t"'". 

Compound  multiplication  and  long  division.. 

Totals     


76 
54 
68 
60 


Actual  Standartl 
hou.a  number 
used        of  hours 


3,658 
3,786 
3,715 
3,912 


7.220 
5.130 
6,460 
5,700 


Saving 
in  hours 


3,562 
1.844 
2.745 
1,788 


258  '  15.071   24,510  i  9,439 


Sarins 
in  per 
cent 


49 
26 
42 
31 


38 


Advanced  Arithmetic. 


Low  5:  Addition  and  subtraction  of  fractions 
and  decimals 

High  5:   Multiplication  and  division  of  frac- 
tions and  decimals,  denominate  numbers 

Low  6:  Problems  and  review  in  State  Text  to 

percentage     

High  6:  Cases  I  and  II  of  percentage 

Low  7:  Case  III,  of  percentage,  interest,  com- 
mission and  banking.  State  Text 

High  7:  Taxes,  duties,  insurance,  discount  — 

Low  8:  Plane  figures,  areas,  square  root  and 

applications   


Xumljer 

uf 

puplU 


Totals 


125 

130 

128 
135 

106 

84 

52 


Actual     1  standard  i    ggving 
hours  number      j^  i,ouis 

used         of  hours 


8.380 

9,126 

8,855 
10,116 

6,197 
4,416 

2,996 


11.875 

12,350 

12.160 
12,825 

10.070 
7,980 


3.495 

3.224 

3,3a5 
2,709 

3,873 
3.564 


4,940       1.944 


Savins 
in  per 
cent 


760      50.086  1   72,200  1   22,114 


29 

26 

27 
21 

38 
44 

39 


30 


History. 


Number 

of 

pupils 


Fifth:   Elementary  78 

Sixth:  Advanced  text  (McMaster's  Brief),  first 

half  103 

Seventh:  Advanced  text,  completed 9< 


Actual 
number 
of  hours 


standard 
numbe.- 
of  hou;s 


4,657 

7,98r 
6,743 


Totals  278  |  19.381  !  26,410 


7,410 

9,785 
9,215 


Saving 
in  hou.s 


2,753 

1,804 
2,472 


7,029 


Saving 
in  per 
cent 


37 

18 
26 


26 


Geography. 


Fifth  grade  .. 
Sixth  grade  _ 
Seventh  grade 
Eighth  grade 

Totals 


Number 

of 

pupils 


134 


Actual  Standard  gavlng 
number  number  jjj  hours 
of  hours     of  hours 


3,259 
2,271 
1,263 
I.107 


5,225  1,966 

3,420  I  1,149 

2,375  1,112 

1,710  I  603 


7,900  1   12.730       4,830 


Saving 
in  per 
cent 


37 
33 
46 
35 


37 


Grammar. 


Number 

of 
pupils 


Fifth  grade  .. 
Sixth  grade  _ 
Seventh  grade 

Totals    .— 


Actual 
number 
of  hours 


92  5.380 

93  !     4.936 
87  ;     5,153 


272      15,469 


standard 
number 
of  hours 


Saving 
in  hours 


8,740  3,360 
8,835  \  3,899 
8,265       3,112 


25,840  1   10,371 


Saving 
In  per 
cent 


38 
44 
37 


40 


(.SO) 


The  Significance  of  These  Tables.  The  confusion  must  not  be  made 
that  this  saving  in  accelerated  rates  represents  the  entire  difference  between 
individual  and  class  instruction.  The  next  section  will  show  there  is 
another  considerable  factor  in  this  difference.  The  present  figures  show 
merely  the  saving  in  acceleration  upon  the  basis  of  our  own  grade  standards, 
represented  by  the  rate  of  the  legitimately  slowest  pupil  (95  days). 
Although  there  is  considerable  variation  in  the  amount  of  acceleration  in  the 
different  subjects,  due  to  inequalities  in  standardization,  we  may  say  with 
some  assurance  of  approximation  that  this  acceleration,  is  between  35  and 
40  per  cent  inclusive  of  the  few  heavy  losses  by  retardation.  It  means  that 
we  may  expect  to  save  by  acceleration  alone,  some  35  to  40  per  cent  of  the 
school  time  based  upon  an  eight-year  course  for  the  slowest  pupil.  The 
saving  in  money  expense  is  proportional. 

III.  Frictional  Wastes  of  the  Class  System.  There  is  another  con- 
siderable waste  by  the  class  system,  not  clearly  explicable  as  to  cause,  by 
which  the  rate  of  the  class  is  slower  than  the  rate  of  the  standard  set  for  the 
slowest  pupil  under  the  individual  system.  Probably  the  fairest  comparison 
of  .standards  between  the  usual  class  requirements  and  those  we  are  using  is 
in  reading  and  arithmetic. 

In  reading  (p.  38),  it  will  be  noted  that  our  standard  for  promotion 
from  the  high  fourth  grade  is  ability  to  read  understandingly  the  State 
Fifth  Reader  (Stepping  Stones  to  Literature,  Book  V).  But  throughout 
the  United  States  generally  this  book  is  completed  at  the  end  of  the  fifth 
grade,  and,  in  San  Francisco  at  least,  is  the  standard  for  completing  the  low 
sixth  grade.  Our  standard,  therefore,  means  that  our  pupils  are  completing 
in  four  years  what  the  class  system  is  completing  in  five,  and  five  and  one- 
half  years. 

But,  further,  our  standard  of  four  years  is  the  rate  of  the  slowest  pupil 
and  the  present  records  indicate  that  none  will  take  longer;  our  fastest 
pupils  are  upon  the  road  to  complete  this  work  in  less  than  two  years,  and 
the  others  are  distributed  evenly  between  these  extremes.  In  public  schools 
using  the  class  system,  on  the  other  hand,  over  50  per  cent  are  falling  by  the 
wayside  in  the  effort  to  finish  this  unit  in  five  years — five  or  five  and  one- 
half  is  the  rate  of  the  survivors! 

Similarly  in  primar}'  arithmetic  the  standard  which  our  slowest  pupils 
are  meeting  is  that  of  completing  integers,  fractions  and  decimals  at  the 
end  of  the  fourth  year.  The  fastest  pupils  finish  in  much  less  time.  Yet 
under  the  class  system  this  amount  of  work  is  only  reached  by  the  survivors 
of  the  fifth  grade,  and  in  some  schools  a  part  of  the  fifth — after  30  to  40  per 
cent  have  become  laggards  to  the  extent  of  one,  two,  three  or  more  years! 

The.se  are  illustrations.  It  is  evident  that  there  are  frictional  factors 
operating  in  the  class  system  which  retard  its  speed,  over  and  beyond  the 
mere  unused  factor  of  acceleration.  If  we  reduce  these  facts  to  figures,  we 
shall  find  that  the  actual  gain  of  acceleration  by  our  pupils  under  an 
individual  system  over  the  rate  of  pupils  in  the  public  schools  is,  at  least, 
considerably  over  50  per  cent.     It  means  we  are  saving  considerably  over 

(40) 


50  per  cent  of  teaching  time,  and  therefore  considerably  over  50  per  cent  of 

the  cost  of  instniction.  ,      ,  •     ^ 

It  does  not,  however,  mean  that,  necessarily,  the  saving  m  school  instruc- 
tion of  considerably  over  50  per  cent  will  also  reduce  the  time  required  by 
each  pupil  to  complete  the  eight  grades  by  four  years.  A  certain  portion 
of  the  waste  is  confined  to  administration  and  does  not  affect  the  rate  of 
individual  pupils'  progress. 

IV  The  Wastes  of  Attempting  to  Teach  All  Pupils  That  Which  Only 
a  Few  Can  Learn  or  Have  Occasion  to  Learn.  The  teaching  of  music, 
art  and  literature  in  the  school  classes  is  greatly  handicapped  by  the 
effort  to  teach  all  the  pupils  what  only  a  few,  by  the  gifts  of  native  endow- 
ment can  accomplish.  Encouraged  by  the  ambitions  of  teachers,  the  stand- 
ards in  these  subjects  have  been  set  by  the  school  system,  as  a  rule,  for  the 
lifted  The  non-gifted  can  not  reach  them  because  they  have  not  the  native 
abilities  The  gifted,  on  the  other  hand,  can  not  reach  them  because  they 
are  locked  in  step  with  the  non-gifted.  The  result  is  a  general  bankruptcy 
of  these  subjects  Avhich  makes  them  wastes  of  time  with  no  benefit  to  any, 
and  general  injury  to  all. 

We  are  at  present  handling  the  types  of  exceptions  by  this  device :  in 
the  regular  morning  session  we  give  the  minimum  course  for  all.     In  the 
afternoon  pupils  may  return  for  additional  work  upon  specialties  or  subjects 
in  which  thev  have  marked  talent.     We  first  save  a  large  amount  of  school 
instruction  by  cutting  out  a  large  part  of  the  pupils  who  have  manifested  no 
•  abilities.     From  this  saving  we  expend  a  part  by  giving  thoroughly  and  in 
an  advanced  degree  what  it  is  profitable  for  each  to  acquire.     This  pro- 
cedure is  so  new  that  it  would  be  impossible  to  estimate  the  saving  in  time, 
or  the  increase  in  efficiency.     A  similar  series  of  wastes  occur  in  other  sub- 
jects which  may  be  illustrated  by  grammar  grade  arithmetic.     About  two 
years  of  our  arithmetic  might  be  termed  vocational  arithmetic.     At  least  it 
assumes  to  prepare  the  youth  of  the  land  to  do  the  arithmetic  pertaining 
to  some  vocation— shingling,  carpeting,  paper  hanging,  surveying,  brick 
laying,  banking,  commission,  brokerage,  bond  buying,  stock  jobbing,  buying 
and  selling  horses  in  mystifying  terms  of  per  cent  and  indulging  in  other 
transactions  by  processes  unknown  outside  school  texts.     Of  course,  most  of 
us  know  that  these  school  processes  are  not  the  processes  of  the  vocations 
themselves  and  that,  even  if  they  were,  no  end,  save  time-killing  ends,  is 
served  by  these  school  inflictions.     But  under  the  class  system  none  can  be 
excused  because  aU  must  pursue  the  same  course,  and  because,  so  our  theory 
runs,  a  few  might  become  bricklayers,  or  bank  clerks,  etc.     Therefore,  we 
require  all  to  learn  the  alleged  arithmetic  of  each  trade  in  the  fear  that 
some  might  not  be  able  to  do  the  arithmetic  of  his  own.     Little  girls  "go 
through"  (but  do  not  learn)  the  school  arithmetic  of  brick  laying,  shingle 
laying,  etc.,  because  they  are  in  the  class,  and  they  can't  be  promoted  unless 
they  have  covered  the  class  course.     The  individual  system  at  least  will  be 
an  entering  wedge  to  cleave  this  pedantic  folly.     When,  individually,  we 
require  little  girls  to  master  the   arithmetic  of  shingle  lajang,  etc.,  the 

(41) 


absurdity  will  be  more  pertinent  and  more  forcible.  We  will  then  tend  to 
excuse  each  from  at  least  large  parts  of  this  "vocational"  arithmetic  since 
we  can  do  so  as  easily  as  not.  Each  pupil  excused  from  the  task  means  also 
that  the  school  treasury  will  be  excused  from  the  cost  of  so  much  useless 
instmction.  It  is  probable  that  in  time  most  pupils  would  be  sensibly 
excused  from  most  of  this  two  years'  profitless  arithmetic.  Similarly,  we 
may  excuse  from  writing  all  pupils  who  once  acciuire  the  habit  of  legible 
writing ;  from  spelling  those  who  spell ;  from  composition  those  who  once 
acquire  the  forms  of  correct  written  language.  In  fact,  the  sum  of  these 
various  small  economies  of  school  time  attains  very  considerable  proportions 
in  bulk. 

V.  The  Waste  in  Permanent  Plant.  If,  as  our  records  indicate,  prac- 
tically the  slowest  pupils  will  complete  the  elementary  school  of  eight 
grades  in  seven  years,  the  fastest  in  five  years  and  the  mass  somewhere 
between  these  extremes,  it  follows  that  the  number  of  pupils  attending 
school  at  any  given  time  will  be  very  materially  reduced — probably  40  to 
50  per  cent.  Pupils  who  are  now  spending  eight  to  twelve  years  in 
school  will  not  attend  more  than  five  to  seven  years  by  reason  of  the 
elimination  of  wastes.  The  school  plant  can  give  the  same  service  and 
yet  be  40  to  50  per  cent  smaller,  reciuiring  fewer  buildings  and  less  eciuip- 
ment.  The  administration  and  maintenance,  janitor  service,  repairs,  and 
depreciation  costs  will  be  proportionately  reduced. 

VI.  The  Unmeasured  Waste.  There  is  one  other  waste  of  the  class 
system  to  which  I  have  not  alluded,  although  while  its  money  cost  is  the 
largest  and  most  overwhelming,  yet  this  money  cost  is  the  least  of  its  evils. 
Statistics  show  that  considerably  more  than  fifty  per  cent  of  the  pupils  of  the 
American  public  schools  leave  before  they  complete  the  elementary  depart- 
ment. In  other  words,  considerably  over  fifty  per  cent  of  our  citizens, 
fathers  and  mothers,  enter  life  without  completing  the  rudiments  of  school- 
ing! If  school  education  has  only  a  fraction  of  the  value  the  American 
people  have  emotionally  placed  upon  it,  this  single  fact  is  one  to  justify  a 
general  national  alarm.  What  must  be  the  effect  upon  the  ability  of  each 
to  provide  for  himself,  to  receive  the  wages  of  right  and  healtbful  living,  to 
avoid  the  pitfalls  of  ignorance,  social  evils  and  wrong  citizenship?  What 
is  the  effect  of  ignorant  citizenship,  unproductiveness,  dependency,  crime, 
and  degeneracy  upon  the  nation?  What,  indeed,  is  the  money  cost  to  the 
nation  that  over  half  its  people  and  voters  have  not  the  capital  of  intelli- 
gence represented  by  a  rudimentary  schooling? 

There  is  nothing  so  profitable,  so  economical,  so  asset-producing,  as 
human  intelligence;  and  on  the  other  hand,  there  is  nothing  so  profit- 
consuming,  so  wasteful,  so  bottom-scuttling  to  any  enterprise — be  it  indus- 
trial, social,  civic,  or  moral — as  human  ignorance.  Intelligence  or  ignorance 
are  the  commodities  for  which  the  school  system  is,  or  may  be,  the  respon- 
sible manufacturing  plant.  If  it  produces  intelligence — intelligence  to  meet 
life's  problems,  adequate  to  the  world's  accumuhited  wi.sdoiii — then  its  value 

(42) 


is  incalculable.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  our  school  system  throws  out  fifty 
per  cent  of  our  people  into  lives  of  i^'-norance — and  its  cost  is  fearful  at 
any  price. 

Nothing  Which  Is  Inefficient  Can  Be  Cheap.  These  enormous  wastes 
which  have  been  enumerated  are  inherent  in  the  class  system;  they  are  the 
necessary  consequences  of  it.  The  individual  system  removes  the  cause  of 
them  and  therefore,  their  cost.  The  arju'ument  of  cost  is  a  boomerang 
against  those  who,  with  more  haste  than  reflection,  have  raised  this  issue. 
The  farmer  who  attempts  to  save  money  by  using  inefficient  tools  stands  to 
lose  his  crop.  In  no  form  of  modern  business,  public  or  private,  do  we 
admit  that  an  inefficient  or  w'asteful  tool  or  process  can  be  cheap — why  in 
the  school  business?  If  the  individual  system  can  do  the  school  business 
without  waste,  then  its  money  co.st  must  be  less  than  the  present  class  lock- 
step  carrying  a  waste  of  considerably  over  fifty  per  cent.  Let  no  one 
defend  lockstep  schooling  upon  the  delusive  plea  that  it  is  cheap! 

The  Size  of  the  Class.  With  the  data  upon  wastes  by  schooling  pupils 
in  groups,  let  ils  return  to  the  question  stated  in  the  beginning  of  this 
chapter,  "How  can  Ave  possibly  apply  individual  instruction  to  classes  of 
fifty  pupils  with  one  teacher?"  The  fallacy  that  it  is  necessary  to  have 
fifty  pupils  to  a  teacher,  contained  in  this  form  of  the  question,  is  the  only 
obstacle  in  the  minds  of  most  people,  for  not  uprooting  the  lockstep.  If 
we  divest  the  schools  of  the  wastes  occasioned  by  the  lockstep,  it  will  not  be 
necessary  to  have  anything  like  the  ratio  of  fifty  pupils  to  a  teacher,  and  yet 
nevertheless  reduce  the  expense  of  schooling.  For  illustration,  let  us  sup- 
pose that  in  a  city  there  are  ahvays  1,000  pupils  in  the  schools  under  class 
instruction  and  that  upon  the  average  they  require  ten  years  to  complete 
eight  grades.  This  number  of  pupils  at  fifty  pupils  per  teacher  would 
require  twenty  teachers.  Let  us  now  suppose  that  the  rate  of  progress  is 
so  hastened  that  upon  the  average  only  five  years,  or  one-half  the  time  to 
complete  the  school  is  required.  As  soon  as  this  condition  is  established, 
there  will  be  in  school,  at  one  time,  not  1,000  pupils,  but  only  500.  The 
1,000  pupils  will  all  receive  their  schooling  as  before  and  therefore  there  is 
no  need  to  reduce  the  number  of  teachers.  Conse(iuently,  each  of  the 
twenty  teachers  would  have,  not  fifty  pupils,  but  only  twenty-five.  The 
salary  expense  remains  unchanged. 

The  above  situation  is  an  illustration.  It  is  not  probable  that  individual 
instruction  will  reduce  the  rate  of  progress  quite  to  the  extent  of  one-half, 
but  we  may  re.st  with  some  assurance  upon  a  reduction  of  30  to  40  per  cent. 
This  would  mean  a  reduction  from  classes  of  forty  to  fifty  per  teacher  to 
twenty-five  to  thirty-five  per  teacher;  if  the  ratio  is  forty  to  fifty,  classes  of 
thirty  to  forty  would  be  reduced.  The  (piestion  now  arises  upon  what  ratio 
of  pupils  to  teacher  we  can  operate  an  individual  system.  This  question 
can  be  answered  with  any  exactness  only  by  experience.  AVhat  we  are 
doing  in  a  normal  training  school  would  be  no  index  of  what  could  I)e  done 
by  experienced  permanent  teachers.  But.  in  the  event  it  should  prove 
necessary  to  employ  some  additional  teachers,  the  cost  could  be  abundantly 

(43) 


met  by  the  savings  of  the  wastes  of  the  class  system.  The  reduction  in  the 
size  of  classes  would  be  accomplished  by  the  elimination  of  retardation  and 
the  establishment  of  acceleration.  The  savings  from  the  other  wastes 
enumerated  would  create  a  fund  which  would  far  more  than  meet  any 
special  expense  of  individual  instruction.  Under  "Application  to  City 
Schools"  in  the  next  chapter  this  matter  will  be  more  specifically  discussed. 

Summary  of  the  Saving  in  Cost  of  Schooling  by  the  Individual  Plan. 

1.  That  the  extra  instruction  by  repetition  of  grades  necessary  under 
the  class  system  and  amounting  to  12  to  20  per  cent  of  the  cost  of  present 
schooling  will  be  entirely  eliminated  by  the  individual  system. 

,2.  That  by  permitting  pupils  to  make  progress  individually,  there  will 
be  introduced  the  factor  of  acceleration.  The  combined  acceleration  will 
accomplish  a  saving  of  25  to  40  per  cent  in  the  time  and  cost  of  elementary 
schooling. 

3.  That  the  more  rapid  progress  of  pupils  through  school  will  reduce 
the  number  of  pupils  in  attendance  at  any  one  time  and  thereby  reduce  the 
size  of  the  school  plant  necessary  by  30  to  50  per  cent.  The  saving  of 
interest  upon  excess  investment,  maintenance  and  repairs,  janitor  service 
and  administration  will  be  appreciable. 

4.  That  by  giving  each  pupil  just  the  training  his  abilities  and  possible 
needs  justify,  and  cutting  out  the  waste  of  the  attempt  to  train  all  pupils 
to  the  same  degree  in  every  subject,  regardless  of  need  or  ability,  will  yield 
a  saving  of  at  least  10  per  cent  or  more. 

5.  That  all  these  savings  combined  are  considerably  in  excess  of  one- 
half  the  cost  of  present  schooling  by  the  class  lockstep. 

6.  That  by  reason  of  the  faster  progress  of  pupils  and  the  consequent 
smaller  number  of  pupils  in  school,  at  any  one  time,  the  number  of  pupils 
per  teacher  will  be  decreased — probably  30  to  40  per  cent.  In  city  schools 
the  class  of  40  to  50  would  be  reduced  to  25  to  35.  If,  after  experience,  it 
should  be  deemed  desirable  to  employ  some  extra  teachers,  still  further  to 
reduce  this  ratio  of  pupils  to  teachers,  the  cost  would  be  abundantly  met  by 
the  savings  enumerated  and  yet  a  tidy  balance  left  in  the  treasury  to  the 
credit  of  the  individual  plan. 

Advantages  to  Education  by  Individual  Instruction. 

1 .  All  pupils,  without  any  conspicuous  handicaps  of  mind  and  body,  or 
of  regularity  in  attendance,  would  complete  the  elementary  school  of  the 
present  eight  grades  in  five  to  seven  years;  if  these  pupils  entered  school  at 
six  years  of  age,  they  would  graduate  at  ten  to  thirteen  years. 

2.  The  present  appalling  drop  in  school  attendance,  before  the  majority 
complete  the  elementary  school,  will  be  avoided  because  practically  all  will 
complete  the  school  before  the  ages  at  which  this  drop  now  occurs. 

3.  Practically  all  children  will  complete  the  elementary  school,  thereby 
acquiring  the  rudiments  of  an  education,  and  whatever  this  fact  may  mean 
to  self-support,  social  advancement,  personal  comfort,  greater  intelligence 


(44) 


of  citizenship,  better  government,  lessening  of  dependency,  disease,  crim- 
inality, etc..  will  be  reaped. 

4.'  A  new  type  of  high  school  would  by  necessity  be  created,  to  receive 
pupils  at  ten  to  thirteen  years  of  age;  this  would  mean  the  teaching  of 
languages,  mathematics  and  sciences  earlier  and  extending  at  the  latter 
end.  into  vocational  preparation  and  collegiate  grades.  If  this  school  also 
were  operated  upon  the  individual  system,  double  or  nearly  double  the  work 
of  the  present  secondary  school  would  be  accomplished,  giving  a  broader, 
firmer  and  more  thorough  preparation  for  college  or  life— a  much  needed 
reform. 

5.  Elementary  night  schools,  except  for  the  foreign  born  and  those  who 
are  victims  of  special  accidents  in  educational  opportunity,  will  be 
unnecessary. 

6.  The  percentage  and  degree  of  illiteracy  in  present  citizenship  will 
be  greatly  eliminated. 

In  re 

EVERYCHILD,  a  minor,      ) 

vs.  > 

LOCKSTEP  SCHOOLING.  ) 

Figure  out  in  any  way  we  will  the  far-reaching  significance  of  the  facts. 
Do  they  not  mean  that,  by  official  decree  of  school  administration,  for 
every  five  hours  of  school  time,  some  pupils  are  marking  time  for  one.  two, 
three  and  even  four  hours?  Do  they  not  mean  that  if  the  cause  of  this 
time  waste  Avere  removed,  most  pupils  will  have  two,  three,  and  four  times 
as  nuich  time  in  which  to  learn  other  useful  things  in  life  preparation? 
Do  they  not  mean  that  over  ope  half  of  the  school  children,  now  graded 
out  as  school  misfits,  to  become  life  misfits,  could,  if  permitted  to  work  at 
their  own  rate,  get  just  as  much  out  of  their  schooling  as  those  who  now 
mark  time?  Do  they  not  mean  that  the  present  school  plant  could,  under 
individual  instruction,  accomplish  what  it  is  now  accomplishing,  with  at 
least  half  the  expense,  and  use  the  other  half  for  improving  itself?  If 
these  things,  as  presented,  be  true — and  tliey  easily  may  be  verified  in  any 
school — then  argument  is  at  end. 

Be  you  parent  or  citizen,  school  administrator  or  teacher,  the  case  of 
Everychild  upon  the  threshold  of  life,  floundering  in  the  coils  of  red  tape 
of  traditional  schooling  for  the  opportunity  to  make  his  life  worth  the  living 
of  it,  is  up  to  you.  And  the  cause  of  Everychild,  let  us  not  forget,  is  not 
a  personal  cause  alone,  but  it  is  a  cause  which  is  the  root  of  social  pros- 
perity, of  safe  citizenship  for  the  State,  and  of  human  progr&ss. 


(45) 


APPLICATION    OF    THE   INDIVIDUAL   PRINCIPLE    TO   VARIOUS 

TYPES  OF  SCHOOLS. 

The  principle  of  individual  instruetion  has  been  shown.  The  practical 
applications  of  this  principle  to  the  various  types  of  schools — the  rural 
school,  city  schools,  high  schools,  night  schools,  etc. — are  matters  of  adminis- 
tration. The  special  application  of  individual  instruction  to  a  normal 
school  training  department,  M'hile  probably  the  most  complex  and  difficult 
of  all.  offers  few  suggestions  for  city  schools.  The  conditions  and  pur- 
poses are  in  most  cases  altogether  different  and  in  some  particulars  directly 
reversed.  HoAvever,  with  the  exception  of  the  large  city  cla.ss.  existing 
administrative  conditions  are  such  that  an  easy  beginning  could  be  at  once 
made  with  slight  modification. 

1.  Application  to  Rural  Schools.  The  form  of  the  rural  school  of 
usual  size,  say  twenty  to  thirty  pupils,  is  sufficiently  like  the  conditions  of 
our  training  school  to  justify  assurance  that,  at  least  with  printed  exercise 
l)Ooks  for  pupils  and  manuals  for  teachers,  the  general  methods  of  operation 
we  are  now  using  can  be  applied  to  the  rural  school  with  little  or  no  modifi- 
cation. The  larger  rural  classes,  forty  to  fifty  pupils,  offer  greater  diffi- 
culties, but  most  teachers  of  these  schools  seem  to  agree  that  with  the 
exercise  books  the  individual  plan  lessens  their  labors,  for  these  books  pro- 
vide means  of  independent  work  by  pupils. 

The  principle  of  the  reduction  of  the  size  of  classes,  by  virtue  of  the 
faster  progress  of  pupils,  would  doubtless  finally  assist  the  movement 
toward  transportation  of  pupils  to  central  schools.  Already  there  is  a 
large  number  of  rural  schools  of  only  six  to  fifteen  pupils  and  their  farther 
reduction  in  size  would  mean  approach  to  extinction. 

2.  Application  to  Night  Schools.  To  the  night  schools  the  individual 
method  offers  i)ar'tieular  advantages.  It  is  to  these  schools  that  a  percentage 
of  the  "misfits"  turn  after  realization  of  their  predicament.  The  night 
school  is  a  poor  educational  idea,  for  its  pupils  are  usually  youths  and  men 
who  already  have  put  in  a  hard  day's  work  and  are  in  no  condition 
physically  or  mentally  to  forego  rest  and  sleep.  But  as  a  cla.ss.  they  are 
extremely  eager,  self-reliant  and  capable  of  independent,  self-directed  study. 
^Moreover,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  the  night  school  work  is  necessary  individual 
because  th^  students  come  to  the  school  in  all  stages  of  progress  and  capa- 
bilities of  advance.  The  loekstep  cla.ss  system,  when  rigorously  applied  in 
night  schools,  is  little  short  of  brutal.  If  any  class  of  students  in  the  Avorld 
need  and  should  have  the  opportunity  to  use  their  time  profitably  and 
effectively  then  it  is  this  class.  The  Self-Instruction  Series  which  has  been 
prepared  fits  these  needs  because  it  enables  each  student  to  work  without 
nnich  or  any  assistance  from  teacher.  The  pu})ils  have  the  eageriu^ss  and 
maturity,  as  a  rule,  to  make  efficient  use  of  this  opi)ortunity.  Further,  by 
the  use  of  these  exercise  books,  students  can  work  individually  outside  the 
school.  In  fact,  the  materials  are  here  offered  for  a  new  type  of  night 
school — a  school  which  should  devote  its  energies  chiefly  to  giving  help  to 

(46) 


individuals  ovci-  liard  i)lai'('s.  Studnits  need  not  attend  every  night  but 
could  work  in  their  homes  during'  spare  hours  of  the  day  and  at  their  con- 
venience, and  go  to  the  school  merely  for  occasional  help  from  the  teacher 
and  to  have  work  corrected.  Such  a  plan  would  make  the  night  school 
several  times  more  eflficient. 

3.  Application  to  High  Schools.  Anything  to  be  said  upon  the  appli- 
cation to  high  schools  is,  of  course,  conjectural.  But  there  are  certain  con- 
siderations Avhich  justify  assurance  that  the  high  school  is  peculiarly 
adapted  to  individual  treatment  and  that  the  results  in  rapidity  of  progress, 
development  of  self-reliant  habits,  and  thoroughness  would  be,  if  tried,  even 
more  startling  than  in  the  elementary  school. 

1.  The  pupils  are  older,  more  mature,  and  will  even  more  keenly  com- 
prehend and  appreciate  the  opportunities  offered.  Our- experience  shows 
that  the  motive  for  progress  is  the  most  powerful  of  all  motives  when  once 
aroused. 

2.  The  pupils  being  more  familiar  with  reading,  can  better  and  more 
easily  work  from  texts  unassisted  by  teachers.  Special  pupils'  exercise 
books  probably  would  not  be  so  necessary  to  assist  comprehension,  but  some 
system  of  elastic  lesson  should  be  devised  so  that  students  who  do  not  need 
as  much  exercise  to  impress  a  given  principle  as  others  may  not  be  unneces- 
sarily delayed. 

3.  The  subjects  of  mathematics,  the  various  sciences,  especially  in 
laboratory  form,  much  of  language  teaching,  wide  literary  readings,  voca- 
tional training,  especially  lend  themselves  to  individual  instruction  and  the 
adaptation  is  manifest  and  easy. 

4.  The  increased  interest,  greater  rapidity  of  progress,  al)sence  of  dis- 
ciplinars"  friction  and  the  sense  of  self-reliance,  characteristic  of  individual 
instruction,  would  each  be  poAverful  incentives  to  hold  pupils  in  the  high 
schools  and  give  them  greater  grasp  upon  life  when  they  leave  school.  Let 
some  one  try  it. 

4.  Application  to  the  "Special  Class."  It  has  been  the  habit  in  some 
schools  for  many  years  to  nuiintain  what  are  called  "special  classes"  for 
the  benefit  of  "misfits."  They  are  the  only  device,  aside  from  repetition 
of  grade,  which  the  class  system  has  used  to  remedy  the  evils  of  the  lockstep. 
These  classes,  as  a  rule,  are  already  operated  under  a  crude  forin  of  indi- 
vidual teaching.  Generally,  only  a  limited  number  of  pupils  are  permitted 
to  a  class.  A  superior  teacher  is  assigned  to  each  class,  and  the  method  has 
been  that  of  individual  instruction.  Without  other  tools  than  the  usual 
texts,  the  teachers  of  these  classes  have,  as  a  rule,  rendered  good  account  of 
their  charges,  and  frequently  have  brought  backward  pupils  forward  so 
rapidly  that  they  regain  their  original  grades.  Our  plan  would  further 
assist  such  classes.  There  is  a  suggestive  lesson  to  be  drawn  from  these 
special  classes :  This  use  of  the  individual  principle  has  been  used  as  a 
"cure"  for  lockstep  evils.  Why  not  as  a  preventive?  If  the  principle 
ujion  which  they  operate  succeeds  in  advancing  pupils  who  have  been  graded 
out  by  the  lockstep,  why  should  the  principle  not  be  used  as  the  regular 

(47) 


principle  of  all  classes?  AA^hy  should  we  wait  for  the  damage  to  be  done, 
and  to  be  recognized  as  particularly  atrocious  before  we  invoke  the  prin- 
ciple ?  The  idiocy  of  the  man  who  locks  the  stable  door  after  the  horse  has 
escaped,  has  its  bearing  upon  this  ease.  If  the  principle  is  good,  all  pupils 
should  have  the  benefit  of  it.  The  existence  of  the  "special"  class  is  evi- 
dence of  an  existing  disease — the  lockstep.  Why  not  use  the  fact  as  a 
warning  lesson  and  proceed  to  the  source  of  the  disease  in  the  class  system 
itself?  What  our  schools  need  is  an  abatement  of  an  evil,  not  merely  the 
cure  of  a  very  few  of  the  occasional  examples  of  it,  which  happen  to  become 
conspicuous. 

Application  to  the  Teaching-  of  Subnormal  Pupils.  The  problem  of 
what  to  do  in  the  school  with  subnormal  pupils  is  one  which  already  has 
been  taken  in  hand  by  many  cities.  As  a  rule,  they  have  been  segregated 
into  special  classes  and  the  effort  made  to  teach  them  by  instructors  trained 
for  this  purpose.  There  has  been  no  question  but  that  the  teaching  must 
be  individual.  The  class  sj^stem  with  its  lockstep  of  movement,  its  single 
standard  of  method,  and  its  necessary  principle  that  those  whose  mental 
construction  does  not  meet  fairly  well  these  fixed  conditions  must  be 
regarded  as  misfits  to  be  eliminated,  finds  itself  at  unavoidable  war  with  the 
mentally  deficient.  There  can  be  no  compromise,  because  both  the  school 
system  and  the  individual  mental  qualities  are  fixed.  Until  a  system  of 
schooling  is  devised  and  constructed  in  detail  to  permit  variations  among 
pupils,  we  must  expect  in  every  group  to  have  listless,  idle,  uninterested 
pupils,  a  burden  upon  the  progress  of  others  and  a  ceaseless  drain  upon  the 
teachers'  energies.  Not  all  of  these  pupils  are  subnormal.  Some  are  pupils 
to  whom  have  not  been  offered  the  suitable  method  or  stimulus.  If  a  pupil 
is  distinctly  feeble-minded,  we  may  not  expect  ever  to  teach  him,  but  it  is 
important  not  to  mistake  a  pupil  who  merely  has  not  been  stimulated  by  the 
right  method  for  one  who  is  distinctly  lacking.  We  certainly  must  not 
relax  effort  until  we  are  certain.  It  is  useless,  for  example,  to  attempt  to 
teach  a  true  monotone  to  sing,  but  we  must  be  first  sure  the  pupil  is  a  true 
monotone,  and  not  merely  one  in  whom  tone  has  not  been  developed. 

The  class  system  is  helpless  to  deal  with  either  type — either  the  pupil 
M'ith  the  undeveloped  Ciuality  or  the  pupil  fundamentally  lacking.  It  can 
do  nothing  except  to  eliminate  such  pupils  from  the  class,  where  they  can 
nO't  be  other  than  a  nuisance  and  drag  upon  their  fellows.  But  the  policy 
of  segregating  backward  pupils  is  open  to  severe  objections.  To  segregate 
those  who  are  supposed  to  be  subnormal  is  to  designate  them  as  such. 
Whatever  the  administrative  subterfuge  employed,  the  pitiless  fact,  sooner 
or  later,  reaches  the  pupil  and  years  afterward  he  may  be  called  to  face  the 
stigma  that  he  ivas  taught  in  a  class  "for  idiots."  Parents  very  properly 
object  to  this  segregation.  The  situation  is  aggravated  by  the  fact  that  only 
a  small  percentage  of  the  suspects  placed  in  these  classes  are  truly  deficient 
— more  often  they  are  merely  the  accidental  victims  of  the  lockstep.  The 
true  subnormal  has  no  place  in  the  school  system  under  any  conditions. 
There  is  no  value  in  attempting  to  teach  him  school  work,  for  in   any 

(48) 


adequate  degree,  this  is  impossible.  He  is  born  a  dependent  and  must 
remain  one  under  some  form  of  family-  or  state  protection.  The  important 
problem  is  first  to  determine,  in  the  borderland  eases,  the  truth,  definitely 
and  finally.  This  must  be  done  in  the  school,  and,  desirably,  without  segre- 
gation. 

In  very  recent  years,  a  flood  of  light  has  been  let  in  upon  the  physical 
causes  and  conditions  of  the  mentally  deficient.  By  such  exhaustive  and 
practical  studies  as  have  been  made  by  Doctor  Plenry  11.  Goddard  of  Vine- 
land,  we  are  brought  face  to  face  with  the  realization  that  the  range  of 
mental  powers  is  limited  in  a  fixed  way  by  heredity.  In  many  respects 
these  facts  are  unpleasant  and  contrary  to  what  Ave  would  like  to  have  true, 
because  the  possibilities  in  many  human  lives  seem  predetermined  and 
foreordained.  No  idiot,  imbecile  or  moron  has  ever  yet,  by  any  process  of 
education  or  training,  been  lifted  from  one  of  these  classifications  into  a 
higher  order.  Their  whole  lives  mu.st  be  compassed  by  their  hereditary 
limitations.  They  may  be  trained  and  developed,  ivitliin  the  limits  of  the 
classification,  but  can  not  cross  the  boundary. 

These  are  depressing  facts  to  face.  AVe  may  wish  and  hope  that  there 
may  yet  be  found  some  avenue  of  escape,  for  those  so  limited,  but  the  struc- 
tures of  education  must  be  built  upon  a  basis  of  truth,  however  unwished 
for,  and  not  upon  hopes,  however  desirable. 

A  prominent  administrator  of  a  state  school  system  recently  argued 
"you  will  still  have,  under  the  individual  system,  the  subnormal  pupil  to 
deal  with,  just  as  we  have  him  now  in  the  class  system.  These  subnormals 
are  one  chief  cause  of  the  clogging  of  the  school  system  with  repeaters — 
especially  in  the  lower  grades.  They  will  also  be  with  you  in  the  individual 
system  and  will  overburden  the  average  rate  in  the  same  way. ' '  The  sub- 
normals overburden  the  class  system  because  the  class  system  is  hopelessly 
attempting  to  force  them  to  do  ivliat  is  impossiUe  for  them  to  do  and 
because,  by  the  rigidity  of  its  lockstep,  they  can  not  be  given  work  which 
they  can  pursue  with  the  greatest  profit  to  themselves. 

The  individual  system  makes  a  condition  which  relieves  all  these  diffi- 
culties. If  the  deficient  remain  in  the  same  classroom  they  affect  no  other 
pupil's  progress.  Provided  the  teachers  are  properly  trained  to  use 
different  types  of  methods  adapted  to  them,  there  is  no  need  for  segregation. 
Or,  teachers  of  special  training  may  come  into  the  rooms  to  give  instruction. 
The  condition  is  entirely  possible  that  different  courses  of  study,  suitable 
to  each  individual,  could  be  provided  and  when  this  provision  is  made,  the 
deficient  pupil  ceases  to  bo  a  school  problem  at  least. 

5.  Application  to  Large  Classes  in  City  Schools.  It  has  already  been 
shown  in  previous  chapters  tliat  the  cost  of  schooling  by  individual  instruc- 
tion in  city  schools  would  be  cheaper  by  rea.son  of  the  elimination  of  wastes. 
It  also  has  been  shown  that  without  increasing  the  number  of  teachers,  the 
number  of  pupils  per  teacher,  by  reason  of  faster  progress,  would  be  very 
materially  reduced— in  all  probability  that  with  the  same  total  of  pupils  to 


(49) 


be  schooled,  the  ratio  of  forty  to  fifty  pupils  per  teacher  would  be  auto- 
matically reduced  to  twenty-five  to  thirty-five,  and  that  any  increase  of 
teachers  or  other  possible  costs  would  be  amply  met  by  the  saving  of  waste. 

The  problem  of  introducing  the  individual  principle  is  therefore  sim- 
plified to  one  of  administrative  remodeling  with  the  assurance  that  there 
will  be  no  increase  in  cost,  and  a  probability  of  a  substantial  decrease. 
What  the  most  suitable  framework  shall  be  can  only  be  determined  by 
experience,  trial  and  successive  adaptations.  That  it  will  be  anything  like 
the  present  classes  would  seem  the  furthest  removed  from  desirability  and 
likelihood.  It  is  true  that  the  automatic  reduction  of  the  present  large 
classes  to  those  not  exceeding  twenty-five  to  thirty-five  would  suggest  the 
possibility  that  one  teacher  could  handle  such  classes  by  individual  instruc- 
tion without  difficulty.  But  there  are  other  considerations  which  point  to 
the  greater  advantages  of  a  complete  remodeling.  For  example,  the  modern 
tendency  toward  the  employment  of  special  teachers  is  working  out  merely 
to  superimpose  a  corps  of  special  teachers  upon  classes  already  provided,  to 
the  limit  of  cost,  with  regular  teachers.  There  is  consequent  lack  of 
economy  because  either  special  or  regular  teacher  must  be  idle  while  the 
other  has  the  class.  We  need  a  system  by  which  adjustment  of  instruction 
can  be  made  economically.  There  is  nothing  so  sacred  about  our  class 
organization  that  w^e  need  to  have  anj^  aversion  to  casting  it  into  the  junk 
pile  if  a  better  plan  is  visible. 

As  the  administrative  system  under  an  individual  plan  is  taking  shape 
in  mj'  own  mind,  I  see,  not  a  small  classroom  of  forty  to  fifty  pupils  with  a 
single  teacher,  but  a  large  room  containing  200  to  500  pupils.  Around  it 
are  small  offices;  and  also  shops,  laboratories,  libraries,  workshops  and  other 
rooms  for  various  special  purposes.  In  these  offices  will  be  the  teachers  and 
a  new  type  of  school  officer — an  expert  examiner.  Each  teacher  will  be  a 
skilled  expert  in  some  one  field  who  will  take  a  pupil  into  his  office  for 
individual  instruction  whenever  necessar}-.  Pupils  will  work  individually 
by  themselves,  in  workshops,  laboratories,  study  halls,  etc.,  will  be  much 
more  self-reliant  than  under  the  class  system,  and  will  recjuire  the  teacher 
only  for  help  in  critical  difficulties.  The  examiners  will  be  experts  in 
testing  the  progress  of  pupils  and  will  determine  their  promotion,  necessity 
for  study  upon  special  difficulties,  etc.  The  smaller  classrooms  will  be  used, 
not  for  recitations,  but  for  training  in  oral  discussions,  for  laboratory  study, 
music,  etc. 

It  would  be  the  purpose  of  this  administrative  system  to  meet  each  indi- 
vidual jiupil's  needs,  to  provide,  in  much  greater  variety,  means  of  educa- 
tion thi'ough  studying  things  rather  than  books,  through  activities  rather 
than  through  memorizing,  through  personal  initiative  rather  than  through 
teacher-imposed  tasks.  Above  all,  such  an  administration  would  be  con- 
stantly upon  the  alert  to  prune  out  wastes,  to  see  to  it  that  each  pupil  is 
doing  what  is  clearly  profitable  to  himself  in  an  individual  sense. 

AVhen  we  first  come  at  the  problem  of  applying  the  individual  principle, 
we  naturally  assume  that  the  preservation  of  certain  old  furniture  of  the 
class  system  is  a  vital  consideration.     Let  us  realize  at  once  that  it  is  not 

(50) 


part  of  the  problem  of  adapting  the  st-hool  system  to  the  use  of  the  indi- 
vidual, to  preserve  the  wasteful  and  cumbersome  administrative  junk  which 
has  been  the  special  paraphernalia  of  the  class  system.  It  is  true  we  will 
have  upon  our  hands  this  litter  of  the  old  tools  and  structures  of  the  class 
systems — dogmatic  notions  of  mind,  texts,  classrooms  of  a  certain  size,  duties 
of  teachers,  size  of  classes,  types  of  in.structors  and  instruction,  disciplinary 
rules  and  regulations.  Do  we  now  expect  to  operate  an  entirely  different 
principle  and  yet  retain  these  cumbersome  implements  created  and  shaped 
specially  for  the  class  lockstep  ?  It  is  natural  that  the  first  series  of  ques- 
tions should  be  combined  with  groping  attempts  to  preserve  the  old 
machinery  along  with  the  new  principle.  We  are  constantly  asked  such 
ciuestions  as  these:  ITow  can  you  promote  a  pupil  to  another  room?  How 
can  one  teacher  hear  fifty  pupils  recite?  How  do  you  keep  pupils  from 
being  in  the  eighth  grade  in  reading  and  in  the  sixth  in  arithmetic?  If 
your  pupils  graduate  from  the  grammar  school  at  eleven  years  of  age,  where 
are  they  going  to  go  to  school— they  're  too  young  for  the  high  school  ?  How 
are  you  going  to  transfer  pupils  from  an  individual  school  to  a  class  school? 
If  pupils  are  studying  dift'erent  subjects  at  one  time,  how  could  you  send  a 
class  out  to  manual  training  or  cooking?  The  situation  is  not  unlike  that 
of  the  old  farmer  who  for  forty  years  had  accomplished  transportation  by 
means  of  a  buckboard  and  a  mule.  Automobile  transit  tempted  him  and  he 
conceived  the  notion  of  buying  merely  a  gasoline  engine  and  of  tying  it  to 
the  buckboard.  The  thing  did  not  work  and  he  kicked  it  to  pieces,  declaring 
the  trouble  was  with  the  engine.  "Besides,"  he  said,  "there  ain't  no  place 
to  hitch  the  mule. ' '  It  does  not  at  first  readily  occur  that  all  these  ques- 
tions as.sume  the  retention  of  the  cla.ss  machinery  which  bears  as  much 
necessity  to  an  individual  system  as  the  old  buckboard  bears  to  an  auto- 
mobile. It  is  hard  to  realize  that  it  is  the  buckboard  and  mule  which  must 
be  changed — not  the  new  engine. 

The  first  thing  in  planning  reconstruction  is  to  get  firm  hold  of  the  fact 
that  considerahlif  more  than  lialf  the  money  now  expended  in  maintaining 
the  class  system  is  expended  in  maintaining  wastes  which  individual  instruc- 
tion eliminates — waste  of  repeating  grades,  waste  by  making  no  u.se  of 
acceleration,  waste  of  nuiiiitenance  of  a  plant  almost  double  the  necessary 
size,  waste  of  unnecessary  friction,  wastes  of  attempting  to  educate  all 
pupils  in  lines  for  which  they  have  either  no  ability  nor  use,  because  some 
may  possibly  have  the  ability  or  use,  etc.  Most  of  the  class  machinery  has 
been  used  to  perpetuate  these  wastes.     Let's  away  with  it. 

Objections  to  Individual  Instruction  in  Class  Divisions.  The  simple 
notion  of  ti-ansforming  the  cla.ss  system  into  an  individual  plan,  merely  by 
having  the  class  teacher  do  individual  work,  seems  to  us  an  impracticable 
project.  It  is  true  there  are  practically  no  recitations  and  the  time  usually 
devoted  to  them  may  be  saved;  but  this  condition  greatly  increases  the 
amount  of  written  work  even  if  pupils  make  no  faster  progress.  Pupils 
will,  on  the  average,  make  nearly  double  the  progress,  Avhich  again  greatly 
increases    the    amount    of   work   to   be   corrected.     The   plan    of   having 

(51) 


"readers"  of  written  work  to  assist  the  teacher  has  been  suggested  and 
this  device  would  perhaps  do  as  a  temporary  expedient  until  the  classes  are 
reduced  in  size  by  virtue  of  more  rapid  progress.  However,  since  there  is 
no  visible  reason  why  the  plan  of  classes  of  fifty  pupils  should  be  retained, 
it  would  be  better  in  our  judgment  to  plan  at  once  for  a  radical  remodeling 
of  the  entire  administrative  plan.  It  might  be  stated  in  this  connection 
that,  during  the  past  year,  one  large  parish  school  in  San  Francisco,  St. 
Peter's  Parish,  has  adopted  the  individual  plan  and  is  noAV  carrying  it  out 
very  successfully  though  the  smallest  class  is  over  fifty  pupils  and  only  one 
teacher  is  assigned  to  a  class.  The  teachers  are  enthusiastic,  yet  I  can  not 
but  feel  that  these  results  are  accomplished  by  a  labor  and  devotion  which 
we  ought  neither  to  expect  nor  permit.  In  summation,  Ave  may  say  that  the 
establishment  of  an  individual  system  in  city  school  systems  will  probably 
best  be  reached  by  radical  remodeling  of  the  administrative  system.  The 
exact  form  will  have  to  be  worked  out  in  a  city  school  system  by  experience. 
The  suggestions  made  are  merely  by  way  of  illustration  of  possibilities. 
The  problem  can  not  be  difficult  for,  in  any  project  of  this  kind,  the  financial 
element  is  a  determining  factor,  and  we  have  shown  that  the  wastes  of 
expense  by  the  class  system,  which  the  individual  system  would  eliminate, 
would  provide  ample  means  even  for  the  most  radical  remodeling.  It  is  true 
that  for  the  four  or  five  years  during  which  the  changes  were  being  accom- 
plished, while  the  supply  of  repeaters  was  being  worked  out  and  the  gains 
of  accelerated  rates  were  being  established,  the  cost  would  be  temporarily 
increased.  In  four  years  at  most,  however,  the  change  could  be  entirely 
accomplished  and  thereafter  the  saving  of  pupils'  time  and  the  school 
expense  would  be  operative. 

SUPPLEMENTARY  FEATURES. 

There  are  certain  consequences  of  individual  instruction  of  such  impor- 
tance as  to  deserve  mention.     Thej^  are  stated  as  follows : 

Self-Reliance.  There  is  no  more  vital  factor  of  success  than  the 
quality  of  reliance  upon  self.  Without  it,  education,  wealth,  native  abilities 
and  other  advantages,  important  as  they  are,  are  well-nigh  worthless. 
Success  is  to  him  who  creates  opportunity'  by  his  own  energy,  and  failure  is 
born  of  tlie  expectation  that  opportunity  is  fed  to  us  by  a  spoon.  The  man 
of  self-reliance  is  he  who  says  that  if  this  thing  is  to  be  done,  then  he  is  the 
one  who  shall  do  it.  Failure  is  by  him  who  complains  that  others  failed 
liim.  Self-reliance  is  an  attitude  toward  life,  born  of  habits.  The  pioneer, 
and  the  boy  and  the  girl  reared  upon  the  farm  a  generation  ago,  usually  had 
the  advantages  of  this  training.  Self-reliance  has  rarely  been  a  product  of 
the  school,  and  when  we  ask  ourselves  why  this  is  so,  Ave  see  that  it  is  prac- 
tically impossible  for  self-reliant  attitudes  and  habits  to  be  developed  by 
the  dependency  necessary  under  the  class  system.  Schooling  by  class  is 
training  chiefly  in  dependency  upon  others.  The  individual  learns  to  move 
only  when  the  class  moves,  and  in  the  set  manner  in  Avhich  it  moves.  The 
individual  therefore  waits  passively  until  the  class  is  told  what  to  do.  and 

(52) 


how  to  do  it  in  unison.  Conformity  and  obedience  to  dictated,  uniform 
procedure  are  necessarily  the  chief  goals  of  the  school,  and  individual 
diversrence  of  any  kind  must  be  sharply  suppressed.  To  think  for  one's 
self,  to  do  for  one's  self,  to  use  self-initiated  energy  in  the  school  class. 
nece.s.sarily  are  "verboten."  The  pupil  is  daily  trained  passively  to  be  led. 
to  be  urged,  to  move  by  order,  and  only  when  ordered.  The  motor  of  his 
action  is  outside  himself.  Necessarily  the  class  method  of  instruction  must, 
day  in  and  day  out,  teach  that  false  and  most  debilitating  lesson,  that  the 
thing  to  do  in  life  is  to  do  what  is  measured  out  for  one  to  do — never  more 
under  any  circumstances,  and  as  much  less  as  possible  under  all  circum- 
stance's. "We  have,  through  our  schools,  carried  the  spoon-feeding  process 
of  infancy  forward  into  the  hunting  period  of  youth.  Yet  the  time  comes 
when  youth  must  go  into  the  forest  alone,  shape  his  own  tools  and  weapons 
and  make  his  own  kill.  The  wolf  pack  which  reared  IMowgli  knew  more  of 
true  schoolmastership  than  we. 

Can  we  measure  the  silent  force  of  twelve  or  more  years  of  school  train- 
ing of  this  kind  upon  the  later  man  1  Can  we  wonder  that  the  spines  of  our 
school-bred  products  too  often  are  gristle  instead  of  bone,  and  that  their 
heads  are  filled  with  undigested  sap  ?  Is  ther&  anj'^  reason  to  doubt  that  this 
attempted  suppression  of  self-reliance  and  initiative  are  chiefly  responsible 
for  the  instinctive  spirit  of  rebellion  against  the  school,  so  common  among 
the  more  virile  typas  of  young  boyhood?  And  which  is  truly  right — the 
intuitions  of  the  boy.  or  the  perverted  system  of  our  schooling? 

That  the  self-made  man  has  a  something  which  often  overbalances  the 
vastly  superior  advantages  of  the  school-bred  product,  is  an  anomaly  which 
long  has  puzzled  the  schoolmaster.     The  quality  is  self-reliance. 

The  individual  method  elides  the  lockstep.  It  therefore  opens  the  door 
for  training  in  self-reliance.  It  teaches  the  truth  that  for  ' '  every  day,  and 
every  hour,  we  receive  a  just  reward  for  all  we  are."  Each  step  forward 
must  be  the  child's  own  step,  secured  by  his  own  exertion,  dictated  by  his 
own  ambition,  and  accomplished  by  his  own  individual  thinking.  There  can 
be  no  explanation  to  self,  or  to  others,  that  his  shortcomings  are  due  to 
others  or  that  success  is  an  accident  of  chance. 

It  is  as  valuable  that  the  pupil  should  acquire  the  attitude  of  self- 
direction  during  his  school  life,  rather  than  the  attitude  of  a  galley  slave 
obeying  orders  under  exaction  by  outside  force,  as  that  he  should  learn  the 
school  knowledge.     It  is  the  difference  between  slavery  and  freedom. 

Thoroug-hness.  Under  the  class  system,  the  class,  as  a  whole,  moves 
forward,  but  the  comprehension  of  the  lessons  by  the  pupils  varies  greatly 
in  degree.  The  teacher  is  continually  addressing  a  more  or  less  abstract 
composite — "the  class" — but  what  any  particular  individual  thoroughly 
grasps,  is  a  very  indefinite  matter.  A  few  pupils  recite  upon  different  parts 
of  the  lesson,  but  no  one  pupil,  much  less,  all  the  pupils,  recite  upon  all  the 
lesson.  "What  each  obtains  from  the  lesson  is  necessarily  very  doubtful. 
The  realization  is  present  in  the  minds  of  the  best  that  whatever  they  do  not 
comprehend,  ncverthele.ss  the  class  as  a  whole  moves  on. 

(53) 


It  is  altogether  the  reverse  with  the  individual  plan.  Each  pupil  must 
work  through  the  whole  of  every  lesson,  must  personally  pursue  every  item, 
and  must  work  out  for  himself  every  "thought"  question  in  an  intelligent 
manner.  He  can,  in  no  way,  be  carried,  hy  class  momentunu  over  ground 
which  he  has  not  thought  out  for  himself,  and  which  he  does  not  under- 
stand. No  pupil — and  each  realizes  this  fact — can  pass  over  a  lesson  by  the 
momentum  of  others'  thinking.  The  progress  of  each  must  be  made  by  the 
thinking  of  each. 

We  may  say,  with  some  assurance,  that  all  pupils,  from  the  slowest  to 
the  fastest,  who  complete  the  same  unit  of  a  formal  study  such  as  arithmetic, 
have  approximately  the  same  degree  of  thoroughness.  The  system  of  tests 
and  reviews  makes  it  practically  impossible  to  progress  unless  each  exercise, 
advance  and  review^,  is  thoroughly  mastered  as  it  is  passed  over.  Conse- 
quently, completion  of  an  exercise  book  is  evidence  of  thoroughness. 

Under  the  class  plan  all  members  of  the  class  coinplete  the  work  of  a 
grade  in  the  same  time,  hut  they  vary  widely  in  thoroughness.  Under  the 
individual  system  the  thoroughness  is  practically  the  same  for  all.  but  the 
pupils  vary  icidely  in  the  time  they  require  to  finish  the  work.  This  is  the 
important  and  vital  distinctio*n  between  the  two  systems. 

No  Repetition  of  Grades.  There  is  a  most  important  consequence  of 
the  condition  brought  out  in  the  last  paragraph,  that  all  pupils  passing  over 
a  given  unit  accomplish  practically  the  same  thoroughness,  but  vary  in  time. 
This  means  that  the  individual  system  does  away  with  repetition  of  grades. 
"What  a  pupil  finishes  is  thoroughly  done,  and  there  is  no  need  or  occasion 
to  rec[uire  him  to  repeat  it.  His  memory  may  fail  in  particular  facts,  but 
the  system  of  reviews  which  follows,  picks  up  these  matters  and  holds  him 
until  he  relearns  the  specific  thing  he  has  lost. 

Pupils  under  the  individual  plan  may  go  slower  than  the  class  rate 
stipulates,  but  the  fact  that  they  are  never  obliged  to  repeat  entire  units  of 
work,  but  constantly  are  making  forward  progress,  makes  their  rate  faster 
in  the  long  run.  It  is  upon  the  principle  of  the  race  between  the  hare  and 
the  tortoise.  Our  records  seem  to  indicate  that,  Avith  very  few  exceptions, 
the  slowest  pupils  cover  the  ground  of  a  grade  in  less  time  than  the  estab- 
lished class  rate  assumes  to  cover  it.  Further,  t\\ey  are  approximately  as 
thorough  as  the  fastest. 

Training  in  Selecting  the  Essential  and  Pertinent.  The  usual  direction 
of  the  class  teacher  in  assigning  lessons  in  history  or  geography,  for 
example,  is  to  tell  the  class  to  study  the  "essential  facts"  from  page  47  to 
page  51.  But  what  are  the  "essential  facts"  from  the  viewpoint  of  the 
pupil?  To  the  pupil,  unfamiliar  with  the  subject,  all  facts  look  alike.  The 
allusions,  accidental  facts,  and  unessential  facts  are  as  likely  to  be  selected 
as  the  "essential."  Very  conscientious  little  girls,  in  this  dilemma, 
memorize  every  word,  in  the  hope  thereby,  that  they  have  not  missed  an}'. 
Our  exercise  books  meet  this  difficulty  by  offering  Cjuestions,  more  or  less 
definite,  to  draw  out  the  essentials.  These  questions  can  be,  and  are,  varied, 
as  the  pupil  progresses,  to  call  for  more  and  more  judgment  as  to  what  is 

(54) 


pertinent  The  pupil's  study  is  thereby  made  intelligent,  and  the  pupil  is 
Uaduallv  trained  in  ability  to  distinguish  for  himself  the  e.ssential  and 
pertinent.  Sueh  a  devi.-e  is  valuable,  either  under  the  class  or  individual 
•system. 

Both  Slow  and  Rapid  Pupils  Are  Benefited  by  Individual  Instruction. 
The  advantage  to  rapid  pupils  is  manifest.  They  do  ui  one.  tw..  ..r  three 
months  the  amount  of  ^vork  set  as  the  required  standard  for  five  months 
and  proceed  to  the  work  of  the  next  unit.  The  advantage  to  pupils  of 
slower  grasp  is  not  so  manifest,  but  it  is  probably  of  greater  value.  Lnder 
the  cla.ss  svstem.  the  pupils  who  can  not  keep  up  the  class  pace-those  who 
bv  reason"  of  sickness  or  absence  or  other  causes  fall  behind  the  class  in 
lockstep.  and  those  who  are  behind  in  one  or  two  subjects  but  up  in  the 
others— fail  of  promotion  and  must  repeat  the  grade.  There  is  no  possible 
alternative.  Therefore,  a  year  or  half  year  must  be  lost.  But  under  the 
individual  system,  there  is  no  repetition  of  gradas.  The  pupil  may  make 
dailv  progress  slowly  but  he  can  not  pass  over  any  day's  work  until  he  has 
mastered  it ;  if  he  forgets,  the  reviews  will  require  him  to  relearn  it  at  once. 
When  he  finishes  a  grade,  his  thoroughness  is  approximately  equal  to  that 
of  all  others.  He  never  repeats  grades.  :\roreover,  even  if  he  is  the  slowest 
pupil,  he  should  complete  the  eight  grades,  barring  absences,  in  eight  years, 
for  it  is  his  rate  which  is  taken  as  the  standard  requirement  of  a  grade. 
Pupils  who  are  sick  or  absent  for  other  causes  have  full  opportunity  upon 
return  to  recover  lost  ground  by  extra  exertion,  whereas  under  the  class 
system  to  get  l)ehiiid  the  class  makes  repetition  of  a  grade  imminent. 

The  Individual  System  Lays  a  Basis  for  Exact  Grading.  There  is 
nothing  so  indefinite  as  the  notions  which,  under  the  elass  plan,  we  possess 
regarding  the  amount  of  work  we  should  specify  the  work  of  a  gi-ade. 
Judged  by  the  retardations  gathered  in  recent  years  over  the  entire  United 
States,  there  is  a  strong  suspicion  that  our  first  grades  are  probably  over- 
loaded to  nearly  double  their  capacity,  but  no  individual  teacher  knows  the 
truth.  Some  pupils  seem  to  finish  it— the  mass  do  not.  The  individual 
system  gives  us  exactly  the  time  each  pupil  has  spent  in  completing  a  given 
unit  of  work  with  thoroughness.  We  have  the  time  records  of  all.  For 
example,  the  time  records  of  the  seventy-seven  pupils  who  finished  addition 
show  that,  with  the  exception  of  four  pupils,  all  finished  in  less  than  eighty 
hours'  work.  We  do  know  that  one  of  these  was  unwell  and  that  we  failed 
to  arouse  normal  interest  or  ambition  with  the  other  three.  It  is  quite  clear, 
therefore,  we  should  allow  eighty  hours  for  formal  addition  in  order  that 
the  normally  slowest  pupils  shall  not  drag;  the  others  will  do  the  work  in 
less  time. 

Or,  to  take  anothcn-  example:  the  figures  show  that  to  fini.sh  with 
thorough  comprehension  what  we  had  originally  laid  out  as  the  low  fifth 
grade  work  in  grammar,  eight  out  of  sixty-six  pupils  required  nearly  double 
the  time  allotted  to  them,  and  very  generally  all  records  were  nearly  double 
the  time  required  in  other  half-grades  of  the  same  subjeet.     We  had  been 


(55) 


making  the  requirement  of  the  same  amount  of  ground  for  low  fifth  grades 
under  the  class  system  for  some  years,  and  had  not  before  suspected  the  fact 
that  it  was  too  much.  Biit  now  the  condition  stands  out  in  plain  black  and 
white  under  the  individual  plan.  There  were  at  least  two  alternatives — 
either  Ave  must  cut  the  allotment  of  work  seventy-five  per  cent,  or,  find 
some  easier  and  more  rapid  method  of  covering  this  ground.  The  exercise 
books  of  a  very  large  majority  of  pupils  showed  difficulty  with  certain 
lessons  and  we  were  stimulated  to  discover  devices  which  would  ease  these 
difficulties.    The  result  is  a  revised  exercise  book  remedying  these  difficulties. 

This  consideration  can  not  receive  too  much  emphasis.  By  this  means 
the  allotments  of  school  work  to  each  grade  can  be  definitely  regulated  in 
some  exact  degree  of  relationship  to  what  we  may  reasonably  anticipate 
pupils  can  accomplish.  Under  the  class  system  an  undue  amount  is  often 
required  with  the  result  that  many  pupils  pay  the  penalty  of  our  inaccuracy 
by  retardation. 

We  therefore  have  the  exact  time  which  is  recj[uired  for  a  number  of 
different  pupils  to  finish  a  given  unit  of  work.  Striking  out  the  few  records 
which  for  particular  reasons  are  too  slow,  we  can  set  the  record  of  the  justly 
slowest  rate  as  the  recjuirement  for  the  half-grade.  This  will  be  the  estab- 
lished standard  for  all  later  pupils  unless  subsequent  records  show  it  is  too 
low  or  too  high.     The  grade  requirement  can  then  be  changed. 

Types  of  Teachers  and  the  Individual  System.     As  far  as  we  can  now 

determine  the  individual  plan  will  do  two  things  of  immense  value  to  the 
schools. 

1.  By  developing  self-reliance,  a  large  majority  of  pupils  make  progress 
despite  weaknesses  in  teacher ;  i.  e.,  poor  judgment,  improper  and  inadequate 
skill  in  instruction  or  lack  of  proper  training.  The  small  minority  of 
pupils  who  do  not  respond,  who  remain  dependent,  and  who  require  con- 
stant stimulation  will  be  no  worse  off  tlian  under  the  class  system,  and  at 
least,  the  teacher  will  have  the  time  to  give  them  special  attention  for  the 
majority  need  little. 

On  the  other  hand  the  individual  plan,  in  the  hands  of  a  magnetic, 
inspiring  teacher  can  work  greater  wonders.  She  can  lift  the  usual  progress 
of  the  ambitious  pupils  to  the  level  of  wonder-working  enthusiasm.  She 
can  also  lift  the  dependent  minority  and  redeem  many  of  them.  In  brief, 
under  the  individual  plan,  the  weak  or  inefficient  teacher  can  do  much  less 
damage  to  pupils  than  under  the  class  system  which  makes  all  depend  upon 
the  teacher;  and  on  the  other  hand,  the  limits  of  what  a  competent,  inspira- 
tional teacher  may  accomplish  are  extended  far  beyond  the  possibility  of  any 
class  teacher. 

Reducing  the  School  Day.  The  gratifying  l)ut  singular  fact  has 
developed  that  while  pupils  are  making  the  fa.ster  progress,  they  nevertheless 
are  requiring  less  time  per  day.  With  the  new  term  (1915),  ive  arc 
reducing  the  regular  school  day  to  three  and  one-half  hours,  with  no 
required  home  study.  Our  session  opens  at  8 :45  and  closes  at  12 :45  with 
one  thirty-minute  recess  for  all  grades,  and  an  extra  ten-minute  recess 

(5G) 


for  primary  pupils.  No  home  work  is  prescribed  in  any  regular  subject,  but 
pupils  are  encouraged  to  read  widely  along  the  lines  of  literature,  history, 
travel,  science,  etc.  Only  for  exceptional  reasons  and  upon  petition  of  both 
parents  and  pupil  is  any  home  study  of  a  regular  subject  permitted.  The 
.shortening  of  the  time  of  school  work  is  due  to  the  intensified  character  of 
study  under  the  individual  method. 

Exceptions,  however,  are  made  to  this  single  morning  session  plan. 
There  is  an  afternoon  session  from  1:45  to  3  o'clock  which  two  types  of 
pupils  are  permitted  to  attend:  (1)  pupils  whose  parents  personally  wish 
additional  school  time  in  regular  subjects,  for  various  reasons,  and  (2)  pupils 
with  distinctly  supernormal  gifts  in  the  subjects  of  music,  art  or  dramatic 
ability,  or  a  special  interest  in  science.  Some  parents  wish  to  avoid  the 
dangers  -of  having  children  upon  the  streets  in  the  afternoon ;  other  pupils 
are  over-age  and  are  desirous  of  making  up  lost  time.  In  any  case,  the 
afternoon  session  is  a  privilege,  and  attendance  is  granted  only  upon  appli- 
cation of  the  pupil  through  the  parent.  In  the  case  of  the  supernormal 
abilities,  the  suggestion  of  extra  training  is  made  by  the  faculty  and  if  pupil 
and  parents  desire  it,  as  almost  without  exception  they  do,  the  permission  is 
granted.  Out  of  a  total  school  attendance  of  650  pupils,  there  are  now  about 
150  pupils  attending,  for  one  or  more  days  per  week,  the  afternoon  session 
in  music,  in  drawing,  in  dramatic  art,  in  science,  in  arithmetic,  in  compo- 
sition, in  history,  in  geography. 

The  Futility  of  ' '  Group  Remedies ' '  for  the  Lockstep.  The  chief  efforts 
which  have  been  made  to  mitigate  the  evils  of  the  class  lockstep  have  been 
upon  the  theory  of  dividing  the  class  into  smaller  groups.  There  is  some 
mitigation  in  this  device,  due  to  lessening  losses  by  administrative  frictions, 
but  the  essential  evil  of  the  lockstep — the  linking  of  unequals  into  a  forced 
equality  of  stride — is  not  mitigated  at  all.  We  can  have  just  as  much  lock- 
step  by  chaining  two  unequals  together  as  by  chaining  ten  or  fifty.  The 
trouble  does  not  arise  from  the  number  chained  together,  but  from  the 
futility  of  chaining  together  any  nnequals.  Our  data  abundantly  proves 
this  fact  bj^  two  chief  features. 

1.  Progress  by  Fits  and  Starts.  Two  pupils  rarely  make  the  same 
progress  even  for  a  week.  "What  is  a  sticking  point  or  difficulty  for  one 
pupil  is  not  for  the  other.  Little  Billy  is  ambitious  and  keyed  with 
enthusiasm  upon  IMonday,  while  Tommy's  day  is  Tuesday.  Mary  can  spell 
"eat"  but  wants  to  put  a  "w"  in  dog,  while  Susie  prefers  a  "k"  in  cat  but 
is  satisfied  with  any  "dog"  as  it  is.  "While  any  pair  may  disagree  today 
upon  one  of  these  facts,  tomorrow  they  disagree  upon  an  entirely  different 
fact.  Their  ambitions,  their  stomachs  and  motives  may  also  vibrate  disso- 
nantly.  So,  reduction  of  the  number  in  the  group  does  not  bring  unity  and 
harmony.  The  profits  of  individual  instruction  can  only  be  gathered  by 
completely  individual  teaching.  Children  in  school,  as  in  play,  move  by 
fits  and  starts  and  bear  a  treacherous  suggestion  of  kinship  to  Kipling's 
banderlog. 

(57) 


2.  The  Group  System  Rests  Upon  the  "Type  Theory."  The  usual 
group  remedies  are  based  upon  the  theory  of  "rapid"  and  "slow"  types. 
This  theory  has  not  been  supported  by  any  evidence.  As  our  figures  have 
shown,  rapidity  and  slowness,  to  an  almost  exclusive  degree  are  intermittent 
conditions  having  little  to  do  with  a  fixed  native  rate.  Many  years  ago, 
while  superintendent  of  schools  in  a  small  city,  the  writer  became  seized 
with  the  notion  of  one  of  these  group  remedies  upon  a  basis  of  fixed  types 
of  "rapid."  "medium"  and  "slow"  children.  Each  class  was  divided  into 
the  three  types  and  each  type  was  allowed  to  make  a  separate  promotion 
rate.  The  thing  looked  well  upon  paper,  but  it  did  not  work  off  paper. 
The  groupings  quickly  developed  a  fluid  weakness  for  dissipating  themselves 
into  the  air  in  a  most  unaccountable  way.  The  fast  pupils  went  slow,  the 
slow  pupils  went  fast,  the  mediums  went  both  ways,  and  no  one  would  stay 
put.  I  did  not  understand,  then,  as  the  present  data  make  clear,  that  the 
number  of  pupils  falling  into  these  fixed  classifications  is  exceedingly  few 
and  not  sufficient  to  make  practicable  these  mitigating  group  schemes. 


(r>S) 


THE  INDIVIDUAL  SYSTEM  A  MEANS  OF  TRAINING  TEACHERS. 

We  are  frequently  asked  the  question  Avhy,  as  a  normal  sehool,  we  are 
using  the  method  of  individual  instruction  to  train  our  students  in  view 
of  the  fact  that,  as  schools  are  now  organized,  they  must  become  "class" 
teachers.  The  San  Francisco  Normal  School  uses  the  individual  system 
as  a  means  of  training  its  students  for  only  about  half  their  course.  Most 
of  our  students  are  trained  for  the  remainder  of  their  course  in  the  class 
system,  through  assignment  as  assistant  teachers  and  student  substitutes 
in  the  public  schools  of  the  surrounding  cities.  As  a  partial  means  of 
training  young  teachers,  the  individual  system  offers  to  the  problem, 
especially  during  the  "brealdng-in"  period,  some  very  marked  and  almost 
indi.spciisable  advantages : 

1.  Developing  the  Teaching  Heart.  Individual  insti-uction  of  pujiils 
is  the  most  effective  means  of  training  teachers  in  the  chief  difficulties  of 
teaclier  training,  whether  they  are  to  teach  "classes."  or  pupils.  The  first 
and  fundamental  problem  in  teacher-training  is  to  quicken  in  the  young 
teacher,  the  "teaching  heart,"  to  put  her  emotionally  en  rapport  with  the 
pupil,  to  divest  the  l)eginner  of  the  ingrained  notion  that  teaching  is  merely 
the  problem  of  "bossing  the  class."  The  atmosphere  of  a  "class"  exag- 
gerates and  increases  this  difficulty.  The  individual  plan  brings  the  teacher 
in  human  and  personal  contact  with  the  child,  and  .stirs  the  undeveloped 
impulses  of  the  teaching  instinct  through  the  heart. 

2.  Training  in  Specific  Difficulties  of  Subject.  The  second  purpose 
lies  in  the  fact  that  disciplinary  control  of  a  class  must  first  have  a  firm 
foundation  in  a  trained  knowledge  and  personal  skill  in  overcoming  certain 
specific  difficulties  which  every  subject  contains.  There  are,  for  example, 
probably  a  dozen  such  "sticking"  points  in  teaching  arithmetic,  and  as 
many  more  in  primary  reading.  Each  subject  has  its  quota.  Young 
teachers  can  never  learn  them  by  being  told  or  by  memorizing  them  with 
glazed  interest  in  the  "methods"  classes.  "Class"  teaching  does  not  make 
them  stand  out  clearly  and  a  young  teacher  with  "class"  discipline  upon  her 
hands  can  not  get  down  to  them  and  she  is  glad  to  escape  the  whole  issue  by 
"hearing  the  class  recite." 

The  class  teacher  is  only  rarely  brought  face  to  face  with  the  individual 
difficulties^ach  pupil  has  in  learning.  She  assigns  the  class  lesson  and  may 
proceed,  by  class  exercise,  to  elucidate  the  problem  in  a  way,  according  to 
the  doctrines  of  general  pedagogy,  the  human  mind  ought  to  learn.  Her 
chief  work,  however,  is  to  appraise  the  result  as  shown  by  class  recitation. 
She  is  ever  trying  to  make  minds  fit  the  lesson.  The  teacher  under  the 
individual  system  is  ever  being  trained  by  experience  in  sJiaping  the  lessons 
to  fit  the  minds  of  the  varions  pupils.  Such  experience  is  invaluable.  It  is 
the  only  thorough  and  efficient  means  of  teacher-training. 

3.  Preparation  for  Rural  Schools.  Tlie  third  chief  reason  for  using 
the  individual  system  for  one-half  the  training  of  our  normal  students  is 
that  it  offers  special  preparation  for  teaching  in  rural  schools.     The  large 

(59) 


majority  of  rural  schools  have  an  enrollment  of  less  than  twenty-five  or 
thirty  pupils  with  only  a  few  pupils  in  each  grade.  Their  attendance  in 
many  cases  is  irregular.  Many  of  them  are  ambitious  to  make  up  lost  time 
or  to  make  rapid  progress.  To  all  of  these  conditions  the  individual  system 
which  we  are  developing  is  directly  fitting,  and  can  be  used  by  teachers 
without  serious  modification  of  the  existing  administrative  system.  More- 
over, up  to  a  generation  ago,  rural  schools  generally,  were  taught  by 
individual  instruction  and  no  attempt  was  made  to  maintain  grade  restric- 
tions. It  is  only  in  very  recent  years  that  the  rural  school  adopted  the  loek- 
step  grading  and  promotion  of  its  pupils  in  foolish  imitation  of  the  city 
schools.  There  never  was  any  occasion  for  it  and  there  is  not  now. 
Despite  the  primitive  conditions  and  the  inefficiency  of  teaching,  we  do 
know  that  the  bone  and  muscle  of  American  citizenship  was  created  in  these 
schools.  To  this  condition,  the  rural  schools  owe  their  ancient  strength. 
Let  them  return  to  it. 

When  once  the  young  teacher  acquires  the  "teaching  heart"  and  has 
mastered  the  chief  difficulties  involved  in  the  teaching  of  the  various  sub- 
jects, she  is  ready  to  undertake  with  some  confidence  of  usual  success  the 
problems  of  class  instruction.  We  have  provided  for  both  by  giving  one 
year  of  each  type  of  teaching  experience.  By  this  arrangement,  the 
students  in  the  San  Francisco  Normal  School  obtain  one  year's  teaching  in 
our  training  school,  operated  upon  the  individual  system,  as  preparation  for 
rural  schools.  The  second  year  of  the  normal  school  course  they  spend 
chiefly  in  the  city  schools  where  they  are  trained  in  the  class  system.  Thus, 
in  the  two-year  normal  course,  they  receive  training  fitting  them  both  for 
rural  schools,  under  the  individual  plan,  and  for  city  schools,  under  the 
class  system. 


(60) 


TRAINING  IN  SPEECH  USAGES. 

Correct  Speech  is  Important.  Some  of  our  critics  have  professed 
themselves  as  i?reatly  perturbed  lest  the  individual  system,  by  eliding  the 
class  recitation^  also  elides  oral  expression  from  schooling.  We  wish  par- 
ticularly to  plead  an  alibi  to  this  charge  upon  the  simple  ground  that  the 
usual  class  recitation  never  was  an  exercise  in  oral  expression. 

A  quarter  of  a  century  ago  when  Latin  was  first  seriously  attacked,  the 
crv  went  up  from  the  Latinists,  that  Latin,  whatever  its  sins,  must  be 
retained  on  account  of  "the  value  of  translation  to  written  and  oral  expres- 
sion. " '  It  was  an  unfortunate  cry,  for  it  drew  attention  to  the  real  effect  of 
Latin  translation  upon  English  expression.  It  then  at  once  became  evident, 
when  we  came  to  think  about  it.  that  the  usual  literal  translation  is  about 
the  worst  thing  which  can  happen  to  expression.  For  producing  habits  of 
contortion  and  distortion  of  the  English  language,  the  usual  translation 
exercise  of  the  Latin  class  is  the  most  perfect  contraption  ever  invented  by 
pedagogues.  Since  that  time  the  Latin  teachers  have  had  nothing  further 
to  say  upon  this  subject  and  have  discreetly  devoted  themselves  to  the  culti- 
vation of  the  "free"  translation. 

For  analagous  reasons,  it  is  perhaps  a  good  thing  now  to  bring  into  the 
limeliffht  the  effect,  upon  langLiage  expression,  of  the  usual  class  recitation. 
Probably  nothing  equals  its  jerky,  word-angling,  tongue-tying,  eye-rolling, 
body-wriffgling,  leg-twisting  accompaniments.  The  usual  spectacle  of  dear 
teacher  trying  to  worm  "language"  out  of  little  Billy  by  means  of  a  recita- 
tion in  grammar,  or  in  stocks  and  bonds,  is  one  over  which  sweet  charity 
draws  a  shroud  and  closes  this  line  of  argument. 

The  essential  prerequisites  of  any  exercise  in  oral  expression  must  be 
that  the  orators  have  (1)  something  to  say,  (2)  an  active  desire  to  say  it. 
(3)  proper  words  with  which  to  say  it.  The  usual  class  recitation  upon  a 
text  lesson  has  not  one  of  these  prerequisites.  It  is  essentially  a  penal 
inquisition  to  discover  whether  or  not  little  Billy  obediently  memorized  his 
le-sson.  So  far  as  the  quality  of  oral  expression  is  evidence  of  fact,  the 
inference  is  generally  pretty  conclusive  that  little  Billy  did  not.  When  we 
undertake  to  train  pupils  by  habit  to  express  themselves  fluently  and 
logically  in  English  sentences  we  must  aim  at  this  goal  specifically  and 
systematically.  We  can  not  make  it  the  tail  of  some  other  exercise,  such  as 
history  or .  arithmetic,  and  expect  it  to  wag  by  synchronous  sympathy. 
When  pupils  are  cloudy  as  to  facts  and  ideas,  are  dealing  with  unfamiliar 
temis.  and  over  anxious  to  sit  down,  they  are  in  no  condition  to  be  linguistic. 
In  searching  for  examples  of  success  in  oral  expression,  we  can  not  do  better 
than  to  copy  the  principles  of  the  Jesuit  schools.  These  schools  make  a 
success  of  oral  expression — at  least  in  the  one  feature  of  forensic  argument. 
Their  trained  graduates  can  be  picked  out  in  a  crowd.  And  this  is  the 
principle  of  it — forensic  discussion  is  (1)  a  special  definite  subject  of  study 
and  drill  quite  distinct  from  other  subjects;  (2)  the  subject  matter  and  its 
terminology  are  first  made  thoroughly  familiar  and  definite  and  even  the 
lines  of  argument  are  tamped  into  habit;  (3)  the  selection  of  words  and 
balance  of  sentences  are  then  made  the  goal  of  definite,  concentrated  effort. 

(61) 


If  the  individual  plan  cuts  out  the  class  recitation,  then  it  performs  a 
most  needed  excision  to  the  benefit  of  training  in  oral  expression.  The  next 
.step  is  to  frame  a  course,  the  single  definite  purpose  of  which  is  oral 
expression.  This  implies  that  (1)  subject  matter  and  words  to  be  used  are 
within  the  pupil's  familiar  range;  and  (2)  that  motives  for  corrections  of 
form  be  stimulated  by  effective  devices.  During  the  past  year  we  have 
undertaken  the  working  out  of  such  a  systematic  course.  It  has  no  special 
connection  with  individual  instruction  and  we  expect  that  when  perfected, 
it  shall  be  made  the  topic  of  a  special  monograph. 


(('.'.' I 


THE  INDIVIDUAL  METHOD  IN  RELATION  TO   OTHER 
EDUCATIONAL  REFORMS. 

We  are  not  offering  individual  instruction  as  a  panaeea  for  all  the  dis- 
eases of  which  the  schools  are  suffering.  There  are  wastes  and  neiyrlects. 
(luite  apart  from  those  of  method,  to  which  the  individual  system  is  contined. 
We  wish  to  mal<e  this  distinction  quite  clear.  There  are  many  school 
reforms  now  on  foot  which  have  for  their  purpose  the  pruning  of  dead  and 
useless  materials  from  the  present  school  courses,  and  others  for  tlie  intro- 
duction of  newer  tields  of  schoolinji;.  With  these  movements,  we  are  more 
or  less  in  vigorous  sympathy,  but  the  project  we  are  now  presenting  is  not  in 
this  direction  and  is  only  indirectly  connected  with  them.  Nearly  all  of 
these  newer  projects  have  to  do  with  the  subject  matter,  but  it  is  generally 
assumed  that  the  same  }>if<nis  of  instruction,  heretofore  employed,  will  con- 
tinue to  be  employed.  Our  present  project  has  to  do  strictly  with  the 
means  of  schooling  and  is  applicable  to  the  teaching  of  all  subjects.  These 
newer  projects,  however  right,  will  always  be  handicapped  by  the  ancient 
error  of  putting  new  wine  into  old  bottles.  TTnless  we  also  reform  the 
means,  schooling  will  continue  inefficient,  and  whether  the  goal  and  materials 
of  education  are  old  or  new.  useful  or  useless,  the  results  must  always  be 
vitally  handicapped. 

Therefore,  while  our  project  is  in  no  way  in  conflict  with  these  other 
modern  projects,  nor  in  competition  with  them,  we  earnestly  off'ei-  that  it 
takes  precedence,  and  is  the  condition  of  efficiency  of  any  project. 

The  Supernormal.  Singularly  enough,  the  teaching  which  at  present 
is  giving  us  the  most  serious  difficulty  is  not  how  to  deal  with  the  sub- 
normalities  but  with  supernormalities  in  pupils.  W^e  are  all  more  or  less 
familiar  with  supernormal  types  in  music,  in  drawing,  in  color  appreciation, 
in  dramatic  ability,  in  memorizing  powers,  in  language,  in  fluency  of  poetic 
expression,  and,  rarely,  in  numerical  computation.  Unquestionably,  there 
are  also  marked  instances  of  supernormality  which  seemingly  are  the 
products  of  experience  and  training — those  of  mechanical  invention,  of 
scientific  observation  and  application,  of  social  and  civic  philosophy,  of 
literary  appreciation  and  expression.  While  these  latter  complex  powers 
superficially  seem  the  products  of  training,  there  is  no  reason  to  doubt  that 
if  the  elemental  factors  were  exposed,  they  also  would  prove  to  be  con- 
genital. There  are  a  number  of  pupils,  frecjuently  normal  or  even  slow  in 
some  qualities,  but  who  in  certain  other  fields,  seem  to  get  by  a  flash  of 
intuition  what  their  fellows  must  reach  only  by  methodical  plodding.  They 
are  not  usually  noticed  in  the  class  system  since  the  class  moves  as  a  unit, 
and  such  pupils  have  no  excitation  of  their  abilities.  But.  by  the  individual 
system,  such  pupils  are  thrown  clearly  into  relief.  It  has  taken  us  some 
time  to  learn  the  practicality  of  passing  these  supernormals  along  upon 
their  intuitions.  "Pedagogic  ju.stice"  .seemed  to  require  that  in  order  to  be 
fair  to  all  alike,  we  must  force  them  through  the  same  laborious  stages  of  the 
method  required  for  the  normal  pupil.  The  systematic  cour.ses  of  our  exer- 
cise books  are  not  fitted  for  these  pupils ;  for.  while  they  may  make  credital)le 

(03) 


progress,  they  are  yet  far  from  reaching'  their  natural  rates.  They  seem  to 
do  their  thinking  in  reahns  of  which  pedagogy  has  yet  made  no  surveys. 
We  may  get  some  ilhistration  of  it  from  the  geniuses  of  computation  in 
numlier  who,  with  a  glance  at  several  columns,  immediately  write  the  correct 
answer.  They  have  never  been  drilled  upon  combinations,  reviewed  and 
relearned !  None  of  them  has  ever  been  able  to  make  any  explanation  of 
how  he  arrives  mentally  at  his  results  nor  give  the  slightest  inkling  of  his 
processes.  The  answers  well  suddenly  forth  from  a  submerged  mind.  Or, 
in  art,  the  supernormal  knows  by  inexplicable  intuition  the  congruent  and 
noncongruent  factors  which  we  spend  years  in  the  schoolroom,  more  or  less 
fruitlessly.  trA'ing  to  drill  into  the  heads  of  the  normal  and  subnormal  pupils 
alike.  In  science  we  again  get  glimpses  of  this  other  kind  of  thinking  which 
make  our  studied  laboratory  step-by-step  methods,  invented  by  pedagogic 
system,  seem  grotesque  caricature.  Some  pupils  seem  to  have  flashes  of 
comprehension  which  make  logical  reasoning  a  tortoise  in  the  race  with  a 
hare.  In  music,  poetry,  in  the  use  of  language  and  in  other  fields  we  con- 
tinually catch  these  glimpses  of  the  workings  of  a  submerged  mind  which  ' 
proceed,  not  statically,  but  dynamically,  to  their  goals. 

It  is  this  kind  of  thinking  by  which  invention  and  discovery  proceed, 
heroes  are  molded,  poems  are  thought,  and  miracles  are  wrought.  Our 
schooling,  by  uniform  lockstep,  has  never  been  aware  of  these  conditions, 
has  suppressed  them  by  every  known  device  of  pedantry,  and  has  sought  by 
uniformity  to  extinguish  what  little  Olympian  fire  human  mentality 
occasionally  manifests. 

Practical  cjuestions  arise  which  we  are  far  from  answering.  For 
example,  in  arithmetic,  should  we  attempt  to  teach  a  supernormal  pupil 
how  to  "reason  out"  an  example,  or  should  we  simply  accept  his  result 
without  explanation?  We  know  that  most  pupils  detest  such  "help,"  and 
only  learn  the  explanation  of  how  they  think  by  memorizing  what  we  think 
is  the  way  they  ought  to  think.  We  know,  moreover,  that  as  a  rule  they 
never  think  as  we  think  we  teach  them  to  think,  and  they  arrive  at  goals  by 
altogether  different  mental  routes.  If  we  make  this  exception  for  super- 
normals,  should  we  not  make  it  also  for  normals  and  subnormals'? 

In  all  culture  subjects,  such  as  literature,  history,  geography,  science, 
should  we  not  tear  out  and  burn  root  and  branch,  the  written  examination 
except  for  brief  statement  of  fundamental  facts  of  a  formal  character? 
Examinations  are  efforts  to  reduce  thinking  to  dictated  formula  and  as  such 
deceive  every  one  concerned  as  to  what  they  really  represent,  and  mean 
little  of  what  they  assume  to  signify. 

AYe  feel  that  the  greatest  gains  in  progress  yet  to  l)e  made  will  be  by 
finding  a  means  of  permitting  pupils  of  certain  supernormal  characteristics 
to  reach  their  natural  rates.  In  various  subjects,  sucli  as  nu^sic,  art,  litera- 
ture, composition,  discussion  of  science,  we  have,  after  formal  foundation 
has  been  laid,  segregated,  regardless  of  grade,  pupils  showing  sparks  of 
genius.  They  are  offered  opportunities  of  a  suggestive  character  and  of 
varied  assortment,  put  into  situations  which  call  for  impromptu  or  original 
solution,  stimulated  to  invention,  etc.     In  the  absence  of  definite  knowledge 

(C4) 


of  how  to  develop  these  pupils,  wf  liave  felt  the  pedagogue  could  at  least 
remove  restraints,  clear  the  obstructions  from  the  road  of  each  individual, 
oil  the  wheels,  kindle  enthusiasm,  and  organize  the  applause.  These  types 
of  study,  we  hope  to  make  later  the  subject  of  a  special  monograph. 

The  Problem  Beyond.     The  individual  systcin,  by  i-eleasing  the  pupil's 
ambition,  and  freeing  inborn  abilities  from  imposed  restraints,  ott'ers  a  new 
impetus  to  education.     Under  it  the  child,  the  teacher  and  the  school  become 
different — they  become  natural.     New  conditions,  new  problems  and  new 
possibilities  present  themselves.     The  individual  system,  while  it  has  not 
done  more  than  to  make  natural  education  possible,  nevertheless,  in  doing 
this,  is  doing  all  that  is  possible.     While,  probably,  many  of  us  can  not 
follow  Dr.  Montessori  into  the  mystic  labyrinths  of  miraculous  psychology, 
nevertheless  all  of  us  are  brought  to  our  feet  in  approval  of  the  substitution 
of  the  child's  initiative  for  dictated  thinking.     We  recognize  at  once  the 
dynamic  power  of  the  child  in  a  state  of  mental  absorption,  as  compared 
with  the  static  thinking  of  a  group  of  children  performing  a  dictated  task, 
for  a  dictated  period,  and  by  a  dictated  process  of  thought.     We  here  stand 
at  a  crossroads  and  down  one  lane  we  see  the  galley  slaves  who  represented 
so  much  muscle  power^and  nothing  more ;  we  see  the  human  automatons 
in  the  submarine  who,  at  the  dictation  of  the  man  at  the  periscope,  perform 
their  duty,  unthinking  and  irresponsible ;  we  see  duml).  shackled,  unhuman 
labor,  of  all  ages,  reducible  to  mathematical  terms  of  gravity — and  nothing 
more;  and  Ave  also  see,  in  the  same  light,  in  the  same  dumb  attitudes,  the 
children  of  our  schools,  performing  in  the  same  way,  upon  the  same  prin- 
ciple, their  dictated  tasks  in  the  name  of  education — is  this  education  ?     But, 
down  the  other  lane  the  human  race  has  trod,  we  see,  absorbed  in  thought, 
Prometheus,  the  prophets,  the  discoverers,  the  inventors,  the  doers  of  deeds, 
and  in  their  faces  and  in  their  work  are  evidences  of  a  distinctly  different 
kind    of    thinking;    it    is    d^'namic,    self-initiated,    self-absorbed,    drawing 
directly  from  the  well-springs  of  that  universal  mind  by  which  all  things 
are  created.     It  is  now  and  here  that,  whatever  our  regret  that  the  ^Montes- 
sori  movement  should  be  encumbered  by  unfortunate  accompaniments,  we 
must  honor  the  spirit  of  the  woman  who,  rising  from  the  seven  hills  of 
ancient  Rome,   is  calling  the  attention  of  the  twentieth  century  to  that 
simple  touchstone  of  education  which,  new  to  the  schools,  is  yet  as  old  as 
human  progress  upon  those  hills.     The  new  problem  of  education  pounding 
at  our  doors  is  how  to  put  the  pupil  into  a  state  of  self-initiated  processes 
of  thinking  and  how  to  avoid  that  thinkingless  form  of  mentality  which 
schools  have  ever  been  content  to  accept,  and  even  to  force.     Once  we  realize 
this  point  of  view,  the  future  of  schooling  streams  out  in  unlimited  oppor- 
tunities.    The  hard  problem  of  this  generation  of  school  teachers  is  to  cut 
loose  from  our  traditional  point  of  pedagogical  view  which  makes  .schooling 
a  treadmill  of  dictated  thinking. 

The  Handwriting  on  the  Wall.  The  class  system  of  schooling  was 
modeled,  several  centuries  ago,  upon  the  military  conception.  The  most 
efficient  examples  of  class  instruction,  today,  are  to  be  found  in  military 

(Go) 


■schools — notably  in  Germany.  Under  this  military  conception,  pupils'  minds 
are  expected  to  move  through  the  grades  in  perfect  platoons,  just  as  their 
physical  bodies  are  moved  in  military  procession.  A  century  or  less  ago 
people  believed  that  all  minds  were  created  alike  and  that  the  differences 
were  due  to  subsequent  education. 

But  now,  from  a  number  of  sources,  of  science  and  experience,  the  light 
is  breaking  in  that  minds  are  born  different,  that  they  are  made  up  of  parts 
as  varied  in  origin  as  their  ancestry,  and  that  each  individual  represents  a 
combination  of  hereditary  qualities  probably  never  before  assembled  in  one 
individual,  and  perhaps  never  to  be  repeated.  Under  the  more  modern 
conception  education  is  not  a  creation  of  new  parts,  but  a  development  of 
what  ancestry  has  given,  and  must  therefore  be  a  separate  and  distinct 
process  for  each  individual. 

The  sciences  akin  to  education  have  been  rapidly  abandoning  in  practice 
the  theory  of  uniformity  in  mentality.  Pathology  has  already  left  far 
behind  the  notion  that  "insanity"  represents  a  single  type  of  disease,  to  be 
cured  by  confinement  or  by  a  single  remedy.  There  are  now  many 
"insanities"  and  treatment  is  assuming  a  purely  individual  basis. 

Less  than  half  a  century  ago,  the  students  of  criminology  were  in  hot 
pursuit  of  "types."  We  heard  of  the  "atavistic  type,"  the  "recidivistic 
type."  etc..  but  now  we  are  dealing  with  each  delinquent  as  an  individual. 
The  new  standard  authority,  as  a  text,  is  entitled  "The  Individual  Delin- 
quent." 

Similarly  it  is  only  a  generation  ago  that  all  persons  mentally  deficient 
were  commonly  called  "idiots"  and  later  this  uniformity  was  broken  into 
types — "the  idiot,"  "the  imbecile,"  the  "feeble-minded"  or  "the  moron," 
and  again  these  were  broken  into  subtypes,  the  "Mongolian  type,"  the 
"Malay  type,"  etc.  But  modern  practice,  in  treatment,  is  learning  that 
these  types  are  mere  word  classifications  without  fixed  definition,  and  prac- 
titioners are  treating  each  case  as  individual  and  peculiar  to  himself.  As  in 
all  movements  of  modern  progress,  the  schools  are  laggards  and  we  nuist 
expect  that  they  will  be  the  last  and  the  most  resistant  to  individualism. 
But  the  certainty  that  this  step  must  be  taken  eventually  is  plain,  llu 
handirrifing  is  upon  the  wall.  Aside  from  the  general  movement  toward 
individual  treatment  in  all  sciences  dealing  with  mentality,  the  actual  bank- 
ruptcy of  education  by  group  instruction  is  laid  bare  by  its  own  results. 
There  must  be  education  of  the  educators.  There  will  be  resistance  and 
protests.  An  intelligent  civilization  will  not  long  suffer  its  schools  to  be 
operated  by  false  and  abandoned  dogmas  and  at  the  fearful  cost  in  failures 
at  the  outset  of  life  which  the  figures  of  the  system  itself  frankly  reveal. 
The  tide  is  now  at  the  turn. 

Need  of  a  New  Point  of  View.  A  new  point  of  view  is  needed  for 
schooling.  By  this  I  do  not  mean  we  are  suffering  for  an  additional  doc- 
trinaire, for  we  already  have  a  rare  collection.  But  all  our  doctrinaries 
rest  upon  the  one  alluring,  but  unsubstantial,  hope  that  if  we  can  discover 
the  process  by  which  all  people  think,  we  can  hitch  a  system  of  education  to  it. 

(6G) 


All  pupils  could  then  he  educated  willi  dctinite  and  exceptionless  certainty, 
and  young  minds  sent  upon  the  road  to  omniscience  with  the  exactitude  of 
train  dispatching.  From  Plato  down,  philosophers  have  heen  "discover- 
ing" these  universal  laws.  The  trouble  has  been  that  the  hiws  will  not 
stay  discovered.  Each  new  discoverer  feels  it  tirst  duty  to  demolish  all 
previous  discoveries  and  set  up  his  own  in  their  place.  As  a  consequence, 
there  are  now  about  as  many  sets  of  "laws"  as  there  have  been  discoverers — 
and  none  of  them  has  ever  been  known  to  have  a  practical  application.  At 
best  they  have  been  merely  ornamental  illustrations  of  those  sad  words — the 
"saddest  of  tongue  or  pen — what  might  have  been." 

Our  existing  school  theory  is  the  product — a  hopeless  snarl  of  conflicting, 
interlacing,  jangling  phrases,  which  the  web-combing  philosophers  of  all 
ages  have  contributed  to  this  word  museum.  The  commercial  text  manu- 
facturers have  put  this  entangled  mess  into  paragraphic  form,  and  for 
twenty  years  normal  schools  and  university  pedagogical  departments  have 
been  peddling  it  out  as  training  for  teachers!  Jn  order  to  have  groups  of 
words  which  have  no  meaning,  it  is  convenient  to  have  a  vocabulary  which 
has  no  sense.  This  need  has  been  met  admirably  by  what  its  various  pur- 
veyors call  the  "scientific  terminology"  of  pedagogy,  but  which  has  been 
more  accurately  named,  by  one  thoughtful  observer,*  as  "pedaguese. " 
This  pedaguese  has  fulfilled  the  purpose  of  its  manufacturers.  Professors 
of  pedagogy  whose  mentality  is  sufficiently  anaemic  to  be  honest  in  teaching 
the  stuflt'  are  exhilarated  by  a  buoyant  sense  of  their  own  erudition. 
Students  are  awed  by  its  impressive  unintelligibility  into  a  state  of 
respectful  doubt  as  to  their  own  mental  capacity.  Lay  observers  have 
vibrated  between  the  theories  that  pedagogues  are  a  band  of  fakirs  and  that 
they  are  a  flock  of  harmless  lunatics  with  a  penchant  for  large  words.  After 
all,  the  difficulty  in  finding  the  universal  process  of  thinking  may  be  due  to 
the  alternative  that  there  is  none.  Therefore,  we  need  a  new  point  of  view 
which  brings  this  alternative  above  the  horizon.  At  any  rate,  let  us  abandon 
the  pretension  to  a  "science"  of  education  until  Ave  can  taste  a  scientific 
flavor.  Let  us  be  honest  with  truth  even  if  we  must  appear  poor  in  wisdom. 
In  the  mean  time,  individual  teaching  in  practice  is  very  suggestive  that 
each  man's  process  of  thinking  is  his  own,  that  he  borrows  only  from  his 
ancestry  and  lends  only  to  his  posterity. 


*\\  elland  Hendricks — '  A  .Joysome  History  of  Education."  Mr.  Hendricks  offers  anion" 
his  samples  of  pedaguese,  the  following  quotation  from  a  standard  te.xt  of  wide  use  bv 
normal  schools  and  universities:  "Upon  what  basis  shall  the  agency  of  formal  educatioii 
select  the  experiences  that  are  to  function  in  modifying  adjustments?"  Mr.  Hendricks 
comments  as  follows  : 

•'This  typical  sentence  illustrates  a  remarkable  feature  of  the  language,  namely  its 
peculiar  interchangeability  of  words.  For  instance,  as  we  are  assured  by  one  of  the  most 
learned  pedaguese  scholars  in  the  United  States,  including  Guam,  the  expression  'experiences 
that  are  to  function  in  modifying  adjustments'  means  the  same  as  the  adiustments  that  are 
to  modify  in  functioning  experiences,  or  the  functions  that  are  to  adlu'st  in  experiencing 
modihcations,  or  the  modifications  that  .are  to  experience  in  adjusting  functions  If  vou 
don  t  see  tlie  meaning  of  it  in  any  form  read  this: 

"Tlie  fact  that  the  organization  of  experience  in  coherent  systems  is  a  fundamental 
factor  in  promoting  the  application  of  experience  to  the  practical  improvement  of  adjust- 
ment IS  profoundly  significant  to  the  process  of  education.'  " 


(67) 


The  Real  Difficulties  in  Introducing  the  Individual  System.  The  real 
impediments  to  be  overcome  in  eliding  the  lockstep  in  our  schooling  are 
quite  other  than  actual  impracticability  in  making  a  change : 

I.  The  inertia  of  the  administrative  departments  of  the  school  system. 
This  is  natural.  We  schoolmasters  have  grown  up  in  our  system.  We  are 
part  and  parcel  of  it,  as  it  is  of  us.  "The  virtue  in  most  request.''  said 
Emerson,  "is  conformity.  Self-reliance  is  its  aversion.  It  loves  not 
realities  and  creators,  but  names  and  customs. ' ' 

Our  first  and  most  forcible  reaction  to  any  proposal  for  change  is  defense 
and  argumentative  objection  to  change.  We  are  willing  to  work  our  fingers 
to  the  bone  to  make  productive  the  primitive  machinerj^  we  have,  but  our 
natural  tendency  is  to  attack  any  proposal  to  substitute  new  machinery. 
We  are  not  willing  to  give  the  new  proposals  a  hearing,  much  less  a  trial. 
This  is  all  natural,  human,  and,  in  the  majority  of  cases,  the  safe  thing. 
It  is  a  condition  with  which  all  reform  must  justly  wrestle  and  1)y  which 
finally  be  tested. 

II.  The  teaching  body,  with  a  minority  of  exceptions,  is  naturally,  and 
more  or  less  justly,  fearful  that  change  will  mean  personal  inconvenience. 
Teachers  have  experienced  the  ravages  of  many  new  nostrums,  most  of 
which  have  come  to  naught.  There  is  usually  justice  and  sanity  in  their 
suspicion. 

III.  The  public  mind  is  ever  ready  to  condemn  an  existing  system. 
but  is  as  extremely  suspicious  of  any  proposal  of  remedy.  The  public  mind 
is  enthusiastically  destructive,  but  always  pessimistic  as  to  reconstruction. 
The  above  are  natural,  and  more  or  less  legitimate  difficulties  in  the  way 
of  school  reforms.  But  there  are  a  number  of  illegitimate  impediments. 
There  are  vested  personal  interests — (1)  officials  who  are  not  interested  in 
schools,  except  for  personal  advantage,  and  it  matters  nothing  to  them 
whether  or  not  schooling  is  efficient,  provided  they  are  not  disturbed; 
(2)  incompetents  who  do  not  grasp  the  facts  of  existing  evils,  and  feel  that 
such  agitation  "hurts  business";  (3)  commercial  book  publishers  whose 
l)usiness  would  require  expensive  changes,  etc. 

A  Word  of  Personal  Privilege.  The  faculty  of  the  Normal  School  very 
earnestly  believes  in  the  significance  of  the  results  of  this  effort  to  eliminate 
the  evils  of  the  lockstep  from  our  school  system.  We  believe  that  the  prob- 
lem of  adaptation  of  the  plan  of  individual  instruction  to  all  forms  of 
schooling  contains  no  very  serious  obstacles.  In  putting  forth  what  has  been 
done,  we  are  more  concerned  to  arouse  the  force  that  will  elide  the  manifest 
and  fearful  evils  of  the  lockstep,  in  any  way,  than  that  our  particular  con- 
structive remedy  should  be  adopted  in  its  stead. 

We  are  aware  that  the  natural  conservatism  of  many  of  our  fellow 
workers  in  educational  fields  and  their  sentiments  of  commendable  loyalty 
to  the  school  system  make  it  difficult  to  present  the  case  without  offending 
their  sensibilities.  We  especially  regret  that  in  order  to  overcome  the 
inertia  of  general  acceptance  of  school  evils,  to  which  the  world  has  been  long 
accustomed,  we  have  felt  obliged  to  state  these  lockstep  evils  without  apology 

(GS) 


or  palliation,  and  to  lay  bare  the  truth,  as  we  see  it.  in  its  unexcnsed 
enormity.  "We  regret  exceedingly  that  many  of  our  fellow  workers,  with 
these  sentiments  and  this  loyalty,  have  failed  to  recognize  that  we  are 
attacking  an  impersonal  system,  not  persons.  Further,  we  would  insist,  in 
the  interest  of  the  real  issue  raised,  that  argument  against,  or  even  disproof 
of  the  practicability  of  the  individual  plan  which  we  offer  as  a  constructive 
remedy,  in  no  way  nor  degree  mitigates  the  appalling  character  of  the  evils 
of  the  lockstep.  To  prove  that  individual  instruction  is  impossible  in  no 
way  excuses  lockstep  .schooling.  And  this  much  is  significant:  the  pamphlet, 
"Lockstep  Schooling  and  a  Remedy"  has  now  been  issued  nearly  two  years. 
It  has  been  widely  read  and  discussed.  We  have  heard  much  approval,  or 
admission  of  the  truth  of  the  charges  against  lockstep  schooling.  We  have 
heard  some  argumentative  doubt  and  denial,  some  ridicule  of  the  prac- 
ticability of  the  individual  system  in  its  application  to  large  classes  upon 
the  grounds  (assuming  no  change  is  to  be  made  in  administration)  that  it 
w^ould  cost  more  or  the  teacher 's  work  would  be  harder ;  we  have  noted  con- 
siderable irritation  and  vexation  against  ourselves  for  arousing  hostile 
criticism  of  the  school  sj'stem,  and  some  personal  and  malignant  resentment 
in  consequence.  But — and  this  is  what  is  significant — throughout  this  dis- 
cussion, iw  u'ord  has  reached  us  showing  even  an  attempt  to  dispute  the 
facts,  truth  or  conclusions,  in  general  or  in  any  single  detail,  of  the  indict- 
ment of  the  lockstep  evils  of  the  school  system! 

There  is  then  no  real  issue.  The  large  majority  who  approve  and 
support  the  truth  of  this  indictment,  and  the  minority  who  have  been  per- 
sonally vexed  only  by  immaterial  side  issues,  seem  quite  agreed  upon  the 
one  essential.  There  is  therefore  no  reason,  so  far  as  all  honest  and  genuine 
persons  are  concerned,  why  there  should  not  be  one  combined  movement  to 
uproot  from  the  schools  the  lockstep  system  which  has  sapped  the  strength, 
and  vitiated  the  efficiency  of  our  schools,  which  has  driven  half  the  pupils 
out  of  the  schools  without  an  adequate  education,  and  Avhich  now  is  respon- 
sible, very  largely  at  least,  for  the  army  of  life  "misfits,"  and  for  the  failure 
of  social,  civic  and  industrial  civilization  to  accomplish  legitimate  and 
reachable  goals. 


leU" 


SAN  FRANCISCO  STATE  NORMAL  SCHOOL  PUBLICATIONS. 

The  Teachers'  Manuals. 

Some  years  ago  the  San  Francisco  State  Normal  School  undertook  the  publication 
of  courses  of  study  for  teaching  the  various  subjects  of  the  curriculum  of  the  elementary 
school.  These  courses  were  prepared  by  members  of  the  faculty  and  were  the  outgrowths 
of  daily  experience  in  directing  and  supervising  the  teaching  by  student  teachers  in  the 
Normal  Elementary  School.  The  original  purpose  of  these  publications  was  to  furnish 
to  these  student  teachers  directions  for  teaching  each  of  •  the  subjects.  An  essential 
necessity  in  their  construction  was  that  they  should  be  very  explicit,  specific  and 
practicable  in  use.  Gradually  there  grew  a  demand  for  them  by  teachers  in  the  public 
schools,  and  the  Normal  School  began  to  print  larger  editions  in  order  to  fill  this  new 
need.  The  demand  from  the  public  school  sources  has  now  grown  to  such  proportions 
that  one  chief  service  of  the  institution  is  that  of  its  publications. 
Pupils'  Exercise  Books. 

Up  to  1912  the  publications  had  been  confined  to  courses  of  study  for  the  assistance 
of  teachers.  During  1912  the  publication  of  pupils'  exercise  books,  accompanying  the 
teachers'  bulletins,  was  commenced.  In  one  type  of  these  exercise  books  the  pupils 
write  directly  in  printed  lessons.  This  device  saves  a  large  amount  of  labor  and  time 
of  the  teacher  in  copying  upon  the  board  and  in  oral  instructions.  Further,  it  saves  the 
pupils'  time  in  copying  from  the  board.  But  pupils  can  make  progress  two  or  three  times 
faster  than  by  the  usual  method,  and  the  work  is  done  much  more  effectively  and  without 
the  sense  of  drudgery  either  to  pupil  or  teacher.  The  exercise  books  are  printed  upon 
paper  that  will  take  ink.  They  cost  little  or  no  more  than  the  common  blank  books 
of  the  same  quality  of  paper. 
Monographs. 

There  is  now  commenced  a  series  of  monographs  of  a  practical  nature,   aimed  to 
assist  or  suggest  further  development  of  a  greater  efficiency  of  school  instruction. 
Three  Series. 

There  have  been  three  series  of  publications  in  time — one  issued  prior  to  the  great 
fire  of  1906,   of  which   no  numbers  now  remain;   a  series  begun  in   1907  and   continued 
to  1914,  and,   finally,   the  Pupil's  Self-Instruction  Series,  begun  in  1914.     The  latter  two 
will  be  found  listed  below. 
System  of  Publication. 

The  expense  of  these  publications  is  borne  chiefly  by  a  revolving  fund  obtained  by 
their  sale.  They  are  printed  in  the  State  Printing  Office  and  sold  practically  at  manu- 
facturing cost.  They  are  issued  merely  upon  the  authority  of  the  individual  authors  and 
the  editor  of  the  series,  and  do  not  represent  a  general  or  necessarily  permanent  policy 
of  the  school,  nor  a  consensus  of  its  faculty  or  trustees. 
How  to  Order. 

All  orders  must  be  accompanied  by  school  district  warrant  check,  money  order  or 
stamps.  We  cannot  fill  orders  which  require  keeping  of  accounts.  As  most  of  the 
purchases  of  bulletins  and  pupils'  exercise  books  are  now  made  by  the  school  districts, 
teachers  who  send  orders  should  be  careful  to  secure  the  signature  of  trustees  to  warrants 
in  payment  for  orders,  so  that  delays  may  be  avoided.  Be  careful,  also,  in  filling  out 
orders  that  the  bulletins  are  listed  and  are  not  out  of  print.  We  cannot  exchange 
publications  once  purchased  unless  error  has  been  made  and  the  request  is  made  within 
three  days.  Kindly  avoid,  so  far  as  possible,  conditions  which  require  special  corre- 
spondence  in   the  business   department. 

MONOGRAPHS. 

Monograph  A.  A  remedy  for  Lock-Step  Schooling;  a  preliminary  report  upon  the 
weakness  and  impossibilities  of  the  class  system  of  instruction,  and  progress  to  date  in 
suljstituting  tiierefor  an  individual  system  of  teaching.  By  Frederic  Burk.  Price,  post- 
paid, l:j  cents. 

Monograph  B.  Outline  courses  in  general  information  and  general  intelligence.  This 
monograph  undertakes  to  map  out  the  beginning  of  a  reorganization  of  the  high  school 
course  of  study,  not  only  for  the  better  preparation  of  those  intending  to  become  teachers, 
but  also  in  the  general  cause  of  wider  preparation  of  all  students  in  industrial,  civic  and 
social  intelligence.  To  students  intending  to  enter  the  San  Francisco  State  Normal  School 
the  monograph  will  l)e  sent  free.  Tlie  .subject.s  are  printed  a.s  separate  pamplilets:.  Ameri- 
can History  and  Civics;  pamphlet  for  General  History,  Science,  and  Literature,  Arithmetic, 
Geography,  and  Music;  Spelling,  Language,  and  Grammar.  Price — tlie  set  will  be  sent  for 
25  cents,  postpaid;  separately,  5  cents  each. 

Monograph  C.  Everychild  versus  Lockstep  Schooling;  Data  of  Two  Years'  Experience 
in  the  operation  of  a  system  of  Individual  Instruction  showing  accelerated  rates  of  pupils, 
elimination  of  wastes,  actual  saving  in  cost  of  schooling,  etc.  Compiled  by  Frederic  Burk. 
Price,  postpaid,  15  cents. 

Monograph  D.  Critical  Difficulties  in  the  Teaching  of  Arithmetic.  For  teachers, 
and  for  students  of  Normal  School.  By  Mary  A.  Ward.  Price,  15  cents,  3  cents  added  for 
postage,  (70) 


PUPIL'S  SELF-INSTRUCTION  SERIES. 

(Adapted  to  an  Individual  Method  of  Teaching.) 
The  occasion  and  general  plan  for  this  series  is  set  forth  in  Monograph  A.  To  con- 
form to  this  plan  we  are  undertaking  the  publication  of  a  series  of  pupils'  exercise 
books  and  teachers'  manuals  adapted  to  use  under  the  individual  system  of  instruction. 
They  of  course,  may  also  be  used  under  the  class  system  and  will  assist  in  teaching 
by  the  state  series  texts.  Their  plan  of  construction  embodies  the  features  outlined  in 
Monograph  A-the  "elastic"  lesson,  by  which  the  number  of  exercises  to  secure  compre- 
hension or  accuracy  varies  according  to  individual  need;  the  adaptation  to  simplicity  of 
language-  the  lesson  directions  whereby  the  pupil  can  make  his  own  rate  of  progress  and. 
to  a  large  extent,  independently  of  prescribed  lessons  or  help  from  the  teacher;  the 
cumulative  reviews  by  which  all  principles  once  learned  are  carried  forward  automatically. 
This  series  will  be  found  invaluable,  especially  for  the  rural  school  where  Pupils  must 
depend  largely  upon  their  own  resources.  The  teachers'  manuals  will  give  full  directions 
for  operation  of  the  system. 

^"^""^Except  where  specially  stated,  the  price  of  the  numbers  of  the  Self-Instruction  Series 

win  be  as  follows: 

At  the  Normal  School,  10  cents  each; 
By  mail,  12  cents  each,  postpaid; 

By  express  or  freight,  10  cents  eacli,  transportation  charges  paid  by  buyer. 
Arithmetic.     Bv  Frederic  Burk  and  Mary  A.  Ward. 

No  20— Teachers'  Manual  to  accompany  pupils'  books,  Nos.  21,  22,  and  23,  giving 
directions,  answers  to  examples  and  supplementary  examples.  Price— 25  cents  each,  post- 
paid. 

No.  21— Pupils'  Exercise  Tablet  in  addition  and  subtraction. 
No.  22— Pupils'  Exercise  Tablet  in  multiplication  and  short  division. 
No    23— Pupils'   Exercise  Tablet  in  compound  multiplication  and  long  division. 
No.   29— Problems  in  Percentage.     Double  number.     Price— 20  cents  each  at  Normal 
School;  24  cents  by  mail;  ?20.00  per  hundred  by  express. 
No.  30 — Applications  of  Percentage. 
No.  31 — Problems  in  Mensuration,  Part  I. 
No.  32 — Problems  in  Mensuration,  Part  II. 
Language.     By  A.  S.  Boulware  and  Ethel  G.  Smith. 

No.  42— Pupils'  Exercise  Tablet  in  Language,  Part  I   (for  fifth  grades). 
No.  43— Pupils'  Exercise  Tablet  in  Language,  Part  II. 
No.  44 — Pupils'  Exercise  Tablet  in  Language,  Part  111. 
Grammar.     By  Ethel  G.   Smith  and  Frederic  Burk. 

No.  51 Part  I.     Analysis,   nouns,   pronouns,  adjectives,  adverbs. 

No.  52 — Part  II.     Prepositions,  number,  and  review. 
No.   53 — Part  III.     Verbs,   principal   parts,   predicate   forms. 
No.   54 — Part  IV.     The   verb,    be;   attribute   complements,    helpers. 
No.   55— Part  V.     Participles. 

No.  56 — Part  IV.  Infinitives  imperative,  possessive  comparison,  connectives,  com- 
pound parts,  clauses,  review. 

No    57 Part  VIL      (By  A.  S.  Boulware).     Corrective  exercises  for  curretit  errors.  ^ 

No  58— Part  VIII.  (By  A.  S.  Boulware.)  A  series  of  pads,  supplementary  to  No.  5i, 
with  exercises  to  correct  specific  errors  of  grammar,  as  follows:  1.  Recognition  oT  Predi- 
cates; 2.  Time  of  Predicates;  3.  Nouns  and  Pronouns;  4.  Recognition  of  Phrases;  5.  Infin- 
itives' and  Participles;  6.  Relative  Pronouns;  7.  Comparison;  8.  Clauses;  9.  Connectives; 
10.  Parts  of  Speech.  Price — 10  cents  each,  postage  5  cents. 
History.     By  P.  F.  Valentine. 

No.  80— Pupils'  Exercise  Book,  Part  I,  to  accompany  advanced  state  text.  (Columbus 
through  Jefferson.) 

No.  81 — Pupils'  Exercise  Book,  Part  II,  to  accompany  advanced  state  text.  (Madi- 
son through  Civil  War.) 

No.  82 — Pupils'  Exercise  Book,  Part  III,  to  accompany  advanced  state  text.  (Civil 
War  to  present.) 

No.  83— Difficulties  of  history  texts  simply  explained.     (Democracy,  the  Constitution. 
Centrahzed    Government,    Religious    Toleration,    Monroe    Doctrine,    Spoils    System,    Civil 
Service  Reform,   the   Tariff,    etc.) 
Geography.     By  F.  W.  Hoffman. 

Bulletin  No.  18,  Teachers'  Manual,  with  two  pupils'  exercise  books  in  Map  Geography, 
is  partly  constructed  upon  the  individual  plan.  It  is  already  published  and  may  be 
obtained   upon   application.     (See   next   list.) 

IN    PREPARATION. 

There  are  in  preparation,  for  publication  during  the  year,  the  following: 

Phonics.     A  series  of  exercise  books. 

Writing.     A  series  of  exercise  books. 

Drawing.     A  series  of  exercise  books. 

Music.     A  series  of  exercise  books  in  formal  note  work. 

(71) 


TEACHERS'  MANUALS  AND  PUPILS'  EXERCISE  BOOKS. 

(Series  Published  1907  to  1914.) 
(Out  of  print;  Nos.  1,  2,  3,  5,  6,  7,  8,  9,  13  and  14.     The  materials  of  these  have  largely 
been  absorbed  in  revised  editions  represented  by  the  later  numbers  of  the  Self  Instruction 
Series.) 

No.  4 — A  Course  of  Study  in  IVIap  Geography;  paper  bound,  52  pages.  By  Allison 
Ware.     Price — by  mail,  postpaid,  30  cents. 

Outline  Maps — In  connection  with  Bulletin  No.  4,  the  school  publishes  a  series  of  nine 
outline  maps  from  which  pupils  may  trace  outlines  for  use  in  location.  These  maps  are 
9  by  12  inches  in  size.  They  represent  the  following  areas:  North  America,  South 
America,  Europe,  Asia,  Africa,  Australia,  United  States,  California,  and  the  hemispheres. 
Price — by  mail,  postpaid,  for  set  of  nine,  15  cents.     (See  also  Bulletin  No.  18.) 

No.  9 — A  Course  of  Study  in  Language;  174  pages.  (Out  of  print;  order  Nos.  42,  43, 
44.)     By  Effie  Belle  McFadden. 

No.  10 — A  Course  of  Study  and  Teachers'  Handbook  In  the  Common  Literature  of 
Life;  207  pages,  paper  bound.     By  Allison  Ware.     Price — postpaid,  40  cents. 

No.  11 — A  Course  of  Study  In  Formal  Arithmetic  and  Teachers'  Handbook.  By  David 
Rhys  Jones.     This  bulletin  is  published  in  various  parts  as  follows: 

Part  I.  Teachers'  Handbook  and  exercises  for  integers;  109  pages,  paper  bound. 
Price — by  mail,  postpaid,  30  cents. 

Part  II.  Teachers'  Handbook  and  exercises  for  common  fractions,  decimals,  per- 
centage, denominate  numbers  and  mensuration;  84  pages,  paper  bound.  Price — by  mail, 
postpaid,   30  cents. 

The  Pupils'  Exercise  Books,  Nos.  1,  2,  and  4,  accompanying  the  Handbooks,  are  out 
of  print;  a  limited  stock  of  No.  3  (fractions  and  decimals)  is  still  on  hand.  Price — 10  cents 
by  mail;  the  pupils'  work,  however,  is  included  in  the  Teachers'  Handbook.  Individual 
Series  No.  21  takes  the  place  of  No.  1;  No.  22  and  No.  23  take  the  place  of  No.  2. 

No.  12 — Review  Courses  of  American  History  by  means  of  Composition  Topics,  and 
Teachers'  Handbook  to  the  use  of  the  California  State  Series  Texts.  By  P.  F.  Valentine. 
Part  I.  Teachers'  edition  containing  introduction  and  directions  for  use  of  the  com- 
position method,  the  pupils'  topics  of  the  primary  text,  the  pupils'  topics  of  the  advanced 
text,  a  paragraph  directory  to  the  text,  and  a  cumulative  fact  review  of  the  advanced 
text;   73   pages.     Price — postpaid,   25   cents. 

Part  11.  Pupils'  edition  containing  the  composition  outlines  which  follow  the  state 
primary  text  in  history;  10  pages.  Price — postpaid,  5  cents;  in  lots  of  25  or  more,  freight 
or  expressage  paid  by  purchaser,  4  cents  per  copy. 

Part  III.     Pupils'  edition  containing  the  composition  outlines  which  follow  the  state 
series  advanced  text  in  history,  the  paragraph  directory  to  the  text,  and  the  cumulative 
fact   review   for   the   same;    48   pages.     Price — postpaid,    10   cents;    in   lots   of   25    or   more, 
freight  or  expressage  paid  by  purchaser,  8  cents  per  copy. 
Out  of  print — order  No.  29,  Self-Instruction  Series. 

No.  14 — A  Course  of  Study  in  the  Teaching  of  Composition,  Language  and  Spelling; 
paper  bound.  By  Effle  B.  McFadden,  assisted  by  Ethel  G.  Smith.  Teachers'  edition  for 
first  three  years.  Price — postpaid,  25  cents.  Nos.  1  and  2  of  the  pupils'  exercise  books 
heretofore  accompanying  this  handbook  are  out  of  print;  they  are  replaced  by  Nos.  40 
and  41,  Self-Instruction  Series.  A  small  stock  of  Nos.  3  and  4  still  remains.  Price — 10 
cents,  postpaid. 

No.  16 — A  Course  of  Study  In  Phonics.  By  Corrine  H.  Johnstone  and  Frederic  Burk. 
Teachers'   Edition,  Part  I,   90  pages.     Price — postpaid,   20   cents. 

Pupils'  Phonic  Exercise  Book  No.  1  (containing  exercises  reprinted  from  teachers' 
edition).  Price — postpaid,  10  cents;  in  lots  of  25  or  more,  freight  or  expressage  paid  by 
purchaser,  7%  cents. 

No.  17 — A  Composition  Course  in  American  Government  and  Pupils'  Handbook  to  the 
State  Series  Text  (Dunn's  Community  and  Citizen)  with  Supplement  containing  revised 
or  additional  paragraphs  upon  conservation,  some  California  laws,  Interstate  Commerce 
Commission,  California's  compulsory  education,  direct  election  of  United  States  senators, 
direct  primary,  township  and  county,  the  commission  form  of  city  government,  the 
initiative,  referendum  and  recall,  the  cabinet;  paper  bound,  about  40  pages.  By  P.  F. 
Valentine.  Price — postpaid,  15  cents;  in  lots  of  25  or  more,  expressage  or  freight  paid 
by  purchaser,  10  cents  per  copy. 

No.  18 — A  Course  of  Study  In  Map  Geography;  can  be  used  in  grades  as  low  as  fourth. 
By  F.   W.   Hoffman. 

Teachers'  Manual  containing  directions  for  use  of  exercise  books.  Price — 10  cents, 
postpaid. 

Pupils'  Exercise  Book  No.  1 — With  maps  and  blanks  in  which  pupils  write  directly. 
Price — 12  cents,  postpaid. 

Pupils'  Exercise  Book  No.  2 — Constructed  upon  plan  of  Individual  Instruction,  with 
maps  and  blanks  In  which  pupils  write  directly.  Price — 10  cents,  postpaid;  In  lots  of  25  s' 
more,  freight  or  expressage  paid  by  purchaser,  7^  cents  per  copy,  for  both  exercise  books 
Outline  Wall  Maps,  24  by  32  inches,  unmounted  (directions  given  for  mounting); 
No.  1,  world  hemispheres;  No.  2,  Mercator's  projection  of  world.  Price — 10  cents  each, 
postpaid. 

Pupils'  Atlas  (9  maps  of  the  continents,  United  States,  Mercator  and  California). 
Price — 10  cents,  postpaid.  (72) 


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